Bow Street court closes its doors
Tuesday July 11, 11:53 AM

LONDON (Reuters) - Oscar Wilde, General Augusto Pinochet and London gangsters the Kray brothers have one thing in common -- they have all appeared at the city's Bow Street Magistrates Court.

But on Friday the flow of drunks, murderers, master criminals and political refugees through the wood-panelled court comes to an end as it closes its doors forever.

To Chief Magistrate Timothy Workman, whose daily task sheet reads like a soap opera, it will be a very sad day.

"Although the court building does not provide the facilities of the 21st century, it has an atmosphere and history that everyone responds to," he told Reuters in his book-lined office under portraits of past chief magistrates.

"It is a personal sadness to me that I am presiding over its closure," added the soft-spoken 62-year-old.

Literary icon Oscar Wilde initially appeared in Court One on April 6, 1895 charged with homosexuality while American-born wife killer Doctor Hawley Harvey Crippen sat in the same dock 15 years later.

London's notorious gang leaders the Kray brothers -- Ronald, Reginald and Charles -- all appeared there on May 17, 1968, and Chilean dictator Pinochet was arraigned there 30 years later.

Among other notorious notables to have passed through the Bow Street portals are Nazi propagandist William Joyce -- also known as Lord Haw-Haw -- and militant Irish nationalist Roger Casement.

"Since 1735 there has been a court in Bow Street either here or across the road. All life has passed through these doors," Workman said.

On any given day Workman may have to deal with a trail of humanity from destitute drunks to petty criminals interspersed with extradition requests from Russia and alleged terrorists charged with plotting mass murder.

Yet nothing appears to faze him as he ploughs through each case, moving seamlessly in one busy day from a string of unlicensed taxi drivers to a man charged under anti-terrorism laws with conspiracy to murder using poison or explosives.

"If you stop to think about it, it is a bit extraordinary isn't it," he said. "We have to work fast because of the case load, but sometimes you have to slow down when the case is more complex -- and that need not be on the terror charges."

Workman has heard initial cases against Chechen separatist leader Akhmed Zakayev and exiled Russian business mogul Boris Berezovsky among others.

The court's work will transfer to the Horseferry Road court from Monday, although that too saddens Workman.

"Bow Street is old and has character. Horseferry Road is modern and plastic," he sniffed.

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