In the early 1990s, the Lord Chancellor's Department decided to commission a courthouse adjacent to HM Prison Belmarsh so offenders did not have to be transported to court by vehicle.

[1] The building was designed by the Property Services Agency in the Modernist style, built by Hamills Construction in brick and concrete and was completed in 1993.

[2][3] The design involved a broadly symmetrical main frontage with an entrance block flanked by two wings, laid out a slightly different angles, facing onto Belmarsh Way.

The entrance block featured a portico formed by columns supporting a glass canopy and was surmounted by a drum-like structure.

[10][11] The court was also the place for the trial and conviction, in January 2018, of those charged with offences in connection with the 2015 Hatton Garden safe deposit burglary.