Until the early 1970s, apart from an aging courtroom in Middlesbrough Town Hall,[1] there were no dedicated court facilities suitable for criminal trials in the area.

[8] The new building was designed by Napper Collerton in the Post-modernist style, built by John Laing Construction in red brick with stone dressings at a cost of £15.1 million,[9] and was completed in 1991.

[10][11] The design involved a symmetrical main frontage of nine bays facing onto Central Square Gardens.

The central bay featured a two-storey portico formed by columns supporting a pyramid-shaped glass roof.

[12] A statue sculpted by Graham Ibbeson, entitled "Scales of Justice", which depicted two small squabbling children being held by a women, was unveiled outside the building in 1994.