Old Bailey
In mid-January, we took a night-time tour of the “Old Bailey” – the oldest courthouse in use in the UK, which is also the central criminal court and which is empowered to try cases from any part of the country. The courthouse took that name over the years because it was located on Bailey Street which, in turn, got its name because it ran next to one of the old Roman walls of London – and “bailey” is an old name for a castle wall.
The court is subject to the Lord Mayor of London who has the power to act as the judge anytime he should choose to do so – though today he doesn’t actually do that and would probably cause a huge stir if he did. He (or she, some of the Lord Mayors have been female) does, though, have the authority to free any prisoner – a power also not employed today. The remaining vestige of the Lord Mayor’s power is exercised by coming to the court four times a year to open it – a duty he must perform if he wishes to keep his authority over the court. (Yes, traditions in England seem to remain forever.)
Our guide was one of the court officers (we’d call him a bailiff) who took us to several of the courtrooms, to the prisoner holding cells and even into the ancient basement dungeon-like areas. Parts of the building are on what was the site of the old Newgate Prison which, itself, had a horrific history of unbelievably cruel treatment of prisoners. Touring these dark, cramped spaces during the dark of night was actually pretty spooky. Especially when we made the walk condemned prisoners used to make from the cell where they had their “last meal” to the site of the gallows.
The tour included a mock trial. The guide had us each pick a slip of paper from a hat, with the slips assigning each of us a role. Some of us were defendants, some were prosecutors or defense attorneys, some were jury members, and so on. Chuck was a courtroom guard, who stayed in the “dock” with the prisoners and made sure they remained orderly. Now, would you like to guess who was the judge? Yes, Judge Kathi reigned over all. The guide read us the essentials of a real criminal case, then had each of us play our respective roles. Kathi seemed to relish the act of passing sentence on the three (out of four) defendants the jury found guilty – all of whom were her fellow Embassy employees. (By the way, four years ago, when we toured an Irish whiskey distillery with about 60 people, three were chosen to be “tasters” for the group – and, of course, Kathi was one of those three, too; strange how that happens. Maybe we should have her buying weekly lottery tickets!)
We topped off the night on a somewhat lighter note – a meal at a nearby pub that specializes (as many London pubs do, unbelievably) in Thai food. Several other couples from Chuck’s office were with us for the tour and the pub visit – an unusual and very memorable night!
The court is subject to the Lord Mayor of London who has the power to act as the judge anytime he should choose to do so – though today he doesn’t actually do that and would probably cause a huge stir if he did. He (or she, some of the Lord Mayors have been female) does, though, have the authority to free any prisoner – a power also not employed today. The remaining vestige of the Lord Mayor’s power is exercised by coming to the court four times a year to open it – a duty he must perform if he wishes to keep his authority over the court. (Yes, traditions in England seem to remain forever.)
Our guide was one of the court officers (we’d call him a bailiff) who took us to several of the courtrooms, to the prisoner holding cells and even into the ancient basement dungeon-like areas. Parts of the building are on what was the site of the old Newgate Prison which, itself, had a horrific history of unbelievably cruel treatment of prisoners. Touring these dark, cramped spaces during the dark of night was actually pretty spooky. Especially when we made the walk condemned prisoners used to make from the cell where they had their “last meal” to the site of the gallows.
The tour included a mock trial. The guide had us each pick a slip of paper from a hat, with the slips assigning each of us a role. Some of us were defendants, some were prosecutors or defense attorneys, some were jury members, and so on. Chuck was a courtroom guard, who stayed in the “dock” with the prisoners and made sure they remained orderly. Now, would you like to guess who was the judge? Yes, Judge Kathi reigned over all. The guide read us the essentials of a real criminal case, then had each of us play our respective roles. Kathi seemed to relish the act of passing sentence on the three (out of four) defendants the jury found guilty – all of whom were her fellow Embassy employees. (By the way, four years ago, when we toured an Irish whiskey distillery with about 60 people, three were chosen to be “tasters” for the group – and, of course, Kathi was one of those three, too; strange how that happens. Maybe we should have her buying weekly lottery tickets!)
We topped off the night on a somewhat lighter note – a meal at a nearby pub that specializes (as many London pubs do, unbelievably) in Thai food. Several other couples from Chuck’s office were with us for the tour and the pub visit – an unusual and very memorable night!
posted by Chuck and Kathi Calvano @ 9:14 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home