Court history brought to life in new exhibition

A new exhibition taking place in an old courthouse will provide perspectives of the criminal justice system from all sides, organisers say.

The curator of St Albans Museum and Gallery, Sarah Keeling, said the team had wanted to find a way to honour the building's former life as a court, since the museum opened in 2018.

The building, previously the Town Hall, ran as a court between 1831 and 1966, with the court room and holding cells still intact.

Ms Keeling said the exhibition was especially important at a time when prisons and courts were heavily featured in the news.

Working with more than 10 partner organisations, including those with lived experience of the criminal justice system, the Catching the Chain exhibition was created to document the system from the Iron Age to the present day.

Part of the exhibition includes a replica of a modern prison cell, which people can visit.

Ms Keeling said: "It [the criminal justice system] looks different to every person, if they're a criminal, a victim, working in the system. We wanted to involve as many people as possible.

"Something we talked a lot about with the exhibition is giving people the information and perspectives of all the people involved and the history of where it all came from.

"We know there are some really big questions and events at the moment."

The court primarily dealt with the sort of issues which are now managed in magistrates' courts.

Historically, Ms Keeling said the biggest changes were in how offending was managed.

In the Iron Age and in other early civilisations, there was a focus on managing offending within a small community," she said. But by the Victorian era there was a larger emphasis on imprisonment.

The exhibition also explores how prisons have changed from institutions of punishment to rehabilitation.

"Before the 1800s a lot of punishment was more fines or transportations abroad," Ms Keeling added.

"More often people were just locked up if they owed a debt.

"Punishment was short and sharp."

The exhibition opens on 11 October and runs until April 2025.

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