Editing London Borough of Southwark (section)

== Courts and judiciary ==

The old Southwark borough hosted many Courts and Prisons of Royal Prerogative, the [[Marshalsea]] and King's Bench. As well as the manorial and borough courts, magistrates met until the 20th century at the Surrey Sessions House which had its own jail for the punitive aspect of its work. The [[Inner London Sessions House]] (or now Crown Court) on Newington Causeway descends from these. The [[Southwark Coroner's Court]] in Tennis Street dates back to the charter of 1550. In 1964 [[Southwark Crown Court]] was opened at English Grounds near London Bridge. Since 1994 the Crown Court for west London Boroughs, was rehoused from [[Knightsbridge]] to Southwark as [[Blackfriars Crown Court]]. When the decision was taken to separate the judiciary and legislature, in 2007, by transforming the House of Lords Judicial Committee of Law Lords into the Supreme Court took over the court occupying the Middlesex Guildhall, whose [[City of Westminster]] judges transferred to Southwark Crown Court, hence the senior judge holds the honorific title of the [[Recorder (judge)|Recorder]] of Westminster. Southwark's local magistrates sit at two courts in the borough, Tower Bridge and Camberwell Green Magistrates Courts.

The concentration of major courts, which are [[Crime and Courts Act 2013|unlawful to film save for sentencing with judicial permission]], enables their [[British press|media]] coverage: Southwark has seven jurisdictions, six of which are London's criminal courts and which commonly receive offences committed in public office or in businesses based in Westminster and several other London boroughs.