Anyone who’s visited Croydon will be familiar with the huge concrete thoroughfare known as Wellesley Road.
Sending traffic right through the heart of the 60s-built Croydon town centre, the road is also home to a number of notable Croydon landmarks, such as the aged façade of the Whitgift Centre and the Home Office’s Lunar House HQ.
Opposite the Whitgift entrance sits the Leonardo Hotel. It brings people from far and wide, offering those on holiday and in town on business a place to stay in the heart of town.
However, the hotel – formerly and very aptly known as Jurys Inn – has also recently become a destination for those in the throes of the justice system. Since March 2021, the hotel has served as one of London’s five Nightingale Courts.
These temporary courts were established during the lockdown and dealt with the justice system’s heavy backlog. At the time of their introduction, the then Lord Chancellor Robert Buckland commented that the introduction of the 20 Nightingale Courts across the country ‘will help boost capacity across our courts and tribunals, reducing delays and delivering speedier justice for victims’.
For Croydon, this means the hotel now takes on cases from the already overworked criminal and civil courts down the road on Barclay Road and Ayltre Road respectively. With the exception of custodial criminal cases and complex multi-hander hearings, the hotel court is pretty flexible on the kind of cases heard there.
However, the hotel unsurprisingly offers less intimidating surroundings than the fortress like criminal and civil courts. As soon as you walk through the automatic doors you’re met with the light-hearted hum of conversation and chart music from the hotel foyer speakers.
Unlike in the more labyrinthian courts, it’s impossible to get lost as you are immediately greeted by an usher who acts as a de facto receptionist on the ground floor. According to one usher: “Court staff do more work here.”
She added: “This is no tannoy to let people know when the case is being heard. It does mean we’re on our feet a lot more though.”
However, the steps taken by staff members are cushioned by the plush carpets on the hotel floor. The usher, who used to work in a nightclub, said: “I much prefer working here. We have air-conditioning, and I can actually see the light of day.”
The Ministry of Justice (MOJ) operates primarily on the hotel’s first and second floors, where they have two dedicated courtrooms with full security detail. Staff spoke of the recurring ‘shock’ of hotel residents when the lift opens on the first floor and they see the airport-style scanners.
However, the separation of the public gallery from the main courtroom was the most distinct difference. The standard courtroom set up across the UK sees members of the public sitting in the far corner of the room, where they are expected to sit in silence and obey the arcane procedures of court.
While most people respect these rules, the courtroom can be an emotional place and vocal outbreaks are not uncommon. When this happens the court is disrupted, and victims and staff can feel intimidated as a result.
Yet this is not the case at the hotel court. When the court is in session, members of the public are led to an air-conditioned room by a member of security where they watch the proceedings unfold via the magic of video link. Admittedly the separation does take away some of the natural drama you experience in a courtroom, but the needs of the public are secondary to the proper functioning of the courts.
The separation seems to be especially good for jurors, who don’t need to contend with heavy stares from the public gallery when delivering their verdicts in trials. The courtrooms themselves are now housed inside glorified conference rooms, which give ample space for everyone involved in the process.
In this room, the judge is much closer to the two barristers, who are flanked by the defendant standing on a raised platform. While the limits of the hotel mean the court only deals with non-custodial defendants, it is strange to see them in such close proximity to the rest of the court staff.
However, according to court staff, the judges seem to like the hotel’s setup. The majority of the judiciary at the hotel court are what’s known as recorders.
Recorders are members of the legal profession who act as part-time judges. Recorders often take on this role with the intention of becoming full-time judges.
A court manager said: “Croydon out of all of the Nightingale Courts in London is always having recorders saying they want to work here, to the point where we have had to turn some of them away from wanting to work here. The recorders will be gutted more than anything when this court goes.”
When asked about the court’s capacity, she said: “We took on a lot of work from other areas of London, including a lot of appeal cases from the City of London and the other London Crown Courts. I think the rate with which we get through stuff is good.
“We have security measures in case so we’ve done RASSO (rape and serious sexual assault) cases. We list as much as we can within reason, we’ve got it under control here.”
The MOJ seems to agree with this view, having spent £2.9 million on having the court at the Leonardo Hotel since March 2021. However, the MOJ has also insisted that the courts will remain a temporary feature.
In February of this year, the MOJ announced: “These temporary courtrooms, across nine venues, will continue to be used by judges to hear cases ranging from shoplifting to family proceedings and small claims hearings. The majority of the courtrooms will be open until March 2025.”
In the meantime, the hotel court will have no shortage of cases to deal with as it attempts to address the long backlog. When asked what people can expect when they come to the court, a member of staff said: “It’s nicer than a normal court, but it is still a court.”
