Page 23 - Court: The Place of Law and the Space of the City

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III.

I.

II.

Deconstructing the Central Criminal Court I. The Street: The space of Society
II. The Court: the portal
III. The Prison: The space of Society’s other
Figure 14: Analytical diagram of movement patterns within the ‘Old Bailey’.

Hanson defines segregation as one of the epithets of the Court’s spatial syntax, [2] and the ‘Old Bailey’
is quite typical in this regard. Distinct patterns of circulation ensure minimal contact between the various
agents in the trial – accused, defence, prosecution, jury and judges – until they all meet within the court-
room, and only then under highly controlled conditions. Besides implicit concerns of security, it seems
reasonable to extrapolate that this segregation is more fundamental for the separate identification of these
agents, and the distinct roles they will play in the contract of the trial. Beyond the specific instance of
the trial in which they are participating, they are representative of the very premise of Law as a civic pro-
gramme. The defence and prosecution teams are within society, the jury and judges must be asked to with-
draw temporarily from society in order to reflect impartially upon it, and the accused is most definitively