Shire Hall and Old Gaol

18th-century county hall on Northgate Street with grim subterranean dungeons

The Shire Hall on Northgate Street served for centuries as the seat of Warwickshire's county courts. The Palladian facade of 1758 is one of the grandest 18th-century public buildings in the Midlands. Behind it lies the Old Gaol — a network of stone-vaulted cells that operated from the 1680s through the 1860s and now houses a small museum on crime and punishment in the county.

A more sobering counterpart to the castle's pageantry. Check opening hours, which are seasonal.

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A story
The dungeons beneath the Old Gaol were used to hold prisoners from 1680 onwards in conditions that horrified visiting reformers — including the prison reformer John Howard, whose 1777 visit helped trigger national reform. The cells survive almost unchanged and can be toured: small, dark, and notably grim.

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