Brighton Old Police cells and courtroom

The cells lay dormant beneath the Town Hall in Brighton, a large impressive building with beautiful marble floors, grand staircases and an imposing courtroom. 

The murder of Chief Constable Henry Solomon in 1844 is the most notorious crime this building has seen. Henry was bludgeoned to death by a petty criminal named John Lawrence, whilst he was being interviewed after a night of heavy drinking and stealing a carpet. The murder took place in the basement area of the cells underground street level. 

Henry’s funeral saw huge crowds gather and the local community raised over £1000 for his wife and children- even Queen Victoria donated £50 towards the fund. 

Me Lawrence was tried at Lewes, found guilty and was executed at Horsham prison within 3 weeks and buried on the prison grounds. 

Shortly after Horsham prison was knocked down the bricks where used to build the new police station. John Lawrence’s body was dug up and his body was put on display in the stable of the nearby Queens head, where punters where charged 2d to view him. 

 

Brighton cells have seen many famous cases and altercations including the “Trunk murders” in the 1920s/30s, disembowelled female bodies where discovered at kings cross station, Charing Cross station in 1927 and two more bodies at kings cross and Brighton station in 1934. Brighton quickly acquired the name of “queen of slaughtering places “ with a reputation of the crime capitol of England.

The famous Battle on the beaches on whitsun weekend 1964 between the mods and the rockers occurred on Brighton & Hastings sea front resulting in dozens of arrests and imprisonment to detention centres and fines. 

The two gangs violent behaviour was dramatised in the 1979 film Quadrophina. 

Graffiti from the gangs is still visible in the police cells. 

We have had immense activity at this location, the spirit of a monk is believed to haunt the basement area, we have had great results using all of our paranormal equipment and even had one of our emf meters move on its own by an unseen force (the video is on our Facebook page!) 

 

We look forward to welcoming you to the police cells and courtroom for a night of paranormal investigation!