Until the early 1930s, criminal court hearings in Southampton, known as the assizes, were heard in the Bargate in the High Street.

[1][2] Such cases were then transferred to the west wing of Southampton Civic Centre when it opened in November 1933.

[3] However, as the number of court cases in Southampton grew, it became necessary to commission a more modern courthouse for criminal matters: the site selected by the Lord Chancellor's Department on London Road had been occupied by the headquarters of the Ordnance Survey which had been heavily bombed as part of the Southampton Blitz on 30 November and 1 December 1940 during Second World War.

It was designed by Broadway Malyan in the Modernist style, built in yellow brick at a cost of £7 million,[6] and was completed in December 1986.

[10] Notable cases include the trial and acquittal, in January 1992, of the former football coach, Bob Higgins, on sex abuse charges.