Snaresbrook Crown Court is a historic, Grade II listed building situated in Snaresbrook, an area within the London Borough of Redbridge. It is one of 12 Crown Courts serving Greater London and is designated as a third-tier court. It is set within 18 acres of grounds and has its own lake, known as Eagle Pond. It operates 20 court rooms and manages 7,000 cases a year, making it the busiest Crown Court in the United Kingdom.
Construction of the building began in 1841 and finished two years later. It was built in the Jacobean gothic style by the English architects George Gilbert Scott and William Bonython Moffatt, who were prolific designers of workhouses, hospitals and churches. Snaresbrook Crown Court was originally built as an orphanage at the behest of the philanthropist Andrew Reed who named it the Infant Orphanage Asylum; later it became the Royal National Children's Foundation. Under various titles, it remained an orphanage until 1938 when it became the Royal Wanstead School. The building continued as a school until 1971 when it passed into the ownership of British government who converted the building into a crown court at a cost of £1.6m in 1973. The building opened as a Crown Court on 26 November 1974.
It has undergone extensions and alterations since, with the last being an outer annex, not connected to the original building, which was built to a cost of £3 million in 1988. The court is located on Hollybush Hill, and is opposite the junction to High Street, Wanstead. The nearest tube station is Snaresbrook on the Central line.
