Police Station, Court and War Memorial at Grays in Essex

Police Station, Court and War Memorial at Grays Thurrock c.1928 [Author's Collection]. Map extract from Ordnance Survey Sheet 161 London NE - OS One-Inch Map Depicted 1954, Published 1960. Crown Copyright. Reproduced with kind permission of the National Library of Scotland under the Creative Commons Attribution licence.

Police Station, Court and War Memorial at Grays Thurrock c.1928

A view of the police station and war memorial from the High Street. The policeman is stood at the junction of Clarence Road, the north corner of which was occupied by the Queen's Hotel. Erected on a site once occupied by a public lavatory and horse trough, the war memorial was erected in 1921. It was unveiled by Lord Lambourne, the Lord-Lieutenant of Essex, on Sunday March 6th, 1921. The Grays Temperance Silver Band and the Salvation Army Band played the music whilst a large gathering of local people sang along with the choirs of all the churches of Grays Thurrock, augmented by children from the Council Schools.¹

It was in December 1925 that, at a meeting of the Essex Standing Joint Committee, the Police Stations Sub-Committee reported that "they had for some time had under consideration the question of providing a new Court House at Grays." Accordingly, they instructed the County Architect to prepare plans for a new building.² Opening around 1928-9 the building housed two courtrooms, rooms for the magistrates, along with holding cells for prisoners.

References
1. "Grays Memorial" : Chelmsford Chronicle; March 11th, 1921, Page 3.
2. "New Court House Necessary" : Chelmsford Chronicle; December 4th, 1925, Page 4.

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