Court One - scene of the trials of Dr Crippen and the Yorkshire Ripper and possibly the setting of Rumpole's finest legal moment, the Penge bungalow murders trial - also tends to have more interesting and important cases. Make sure you go to the unprepossessing public entrance on Newgate Street, which provides access to the atmospheric and historic Court One and three others that date from the start of the 20th century, and not the entrance on Warwick Square, from which you access the other 15 courts in the less-interesting 1970s-era extension. But thanks to the British tradition of open justice, you can visit Rumpole's old stomping grounds for free. Would the series have been as popular if John Mortimer had been more of a pedant and named it Rumpole of the Central Criminal Court, which is the correct name of the court that everyone else knows as the Old Bailey? It's a moot point. After years of reading and rereading John Mortimer's Rumpole of the Bailey series, I'm finally going to London and that means I'll get to visit some of the landmarks I've been hearing about for so long.
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