Minshull Street Crown Court Listings: Manchester Crown Court (Minshull St)

Minshull Street Crown Court Listings: What a Normal Day Looks Like

The Minshull Street list is one daily Crown Court list for one building, usually spread over eight or nine courtrooms a day. Every row on this site's lists from 6 to 15 October 2026 carried the same building label, "Manchester Minshull Street". So a normal day's list has no annex to decode, although a section further down explains a separate Stockport arrangement.

Across the eight lists published in that period, the court listed between 48 and 77 hearings a day, about 55 on average. The only Monday in the period, 12 October, was the busiest day by some distance.

Each row gives a time, a courtroom, a hearing type, a case reference and, where the rules allow, a surname. The Crown Court daily list guide explains every column. In short, the list tells you where and roughly when a hearing should start. It never tells you the result.

HMCTS normally publishes a day's list the afternoon before. For example, the list for 15 October 2026 appeared at 4.30pm on 14 October.

Changes can still follow overnight, which is why the panel above shows when the list was last checked. The guide on when lists are published has more on timing.

Is Your Case at Minshull Street or Crown Square?

Manchester has two separate Crown Court buildings, and a letter that just says "Manchester Crown Court" can mean either. The official names give it away.

Manchester Crown Court (Minshull St) is the court covered here. Manchester Crown Court (Crown Square) is the larger Courts of Justice building in a different part of the city centre.

The two sites publish separate daily lists. That makes the list itself a quick check. If your case reference appears on the Minshull Street list for your date, you are in the right place. If it does not, look at the Crown Square listings for the same day before assuming anything has gone wrong.

Jurors face the same question. A jury summons names the court you must attend, and GOV.UK's jury service pages explain the summons itself. Follow the summons, even if a friend who served in Manchester describes a different entrance. They may have sat at Crown Square.

If your solicitor writes only "Manchester", ask which site. A one-minute check can save a rushed walk across the city centre.

Why Does the Official Address Say Aytoun Street?

The official Find a Court record gives the address as The Court House, Aytoun Street, Manchester, M1 3FS, even though everyone calls it Minshull Street. The court takes its everyday name from the street where the original Victorian building stands. The address the court service publishes for visitors uses Aytoun Street, and that is the one to put into a map.

Several listing websites give only "Minshull St" as the address. That is not wrong as a description of the building, but it is less precise for directions. The Find a Court page for Minshull Street is the official record. It also has a "Get directions" link that opens a map at the right spot.

"Minshull" is often heard and typed as "Minstrel", and that spelling causes a real problem.

A map search for "Minstrel Street Manchester" can return Minstrel Close in Swinton, a residential close in the City of Salford with an M27 postcode. It is nowhere near the court.

If a taxi driver, satnav or map app offers Minstrel anything, stop and re-enter the postcode M1 3FS. Postcodes avoid spelling problems entirely. The same applies to booking apps that guess an address from a spoken name.

Directions from your location: Google Maps · Apple Maps

What Time Does a Hearing Start at Minshull Street?

On this court's lists, the large majority of hearings are timed for the 10 o'clock hour, usually 10am or 10.30am. Of the hearings with a time on this site's lists from 6 to 15 October 2026, about 84% were set between 10am and 10.59am. Smaller groups sat in the 11am hour, around noon and in the 2pm hour.

Every list in that period opened at 10am. The latest listed start was 2.15pm on most days and 2.30pm on one day.

A row timed at 2pm usually means a short afternoon hearing that follows the morning's business, and it can still start late.

A listed time is when the courtroom expects to begin that piece of work. Several cases often share the same time in the same room, and the judge takes them in an order that suits the day.

Some rows have no time at all. Around one hearing in five in the period had none.

Delays also come from outside the courtroom. A September 2026 written answer to Parliament reported 22 recorded delays at Minshull Street in the year to 31 July 2026. In each, a prisoner's late arrival contributed. If the defendant is coming from custody, a late start is possible, so allow for waiting.

For a witness or family member, the practical advice is simple. Arrive before the listed time, check the screens or ask an usher on arrival, and expect to wait. The guide to finding your courtroom covers what to do once you are inside.

Which Courtrooms Appear Most on the Minshull Street List

Court 1 carried the most hearings on this site's lists from 6 to 15 October 2026, with Courts 5, 6, 4 and 9 next. Courts 10 and 11 appeared only a handful of times.

The official status page for the building lists Court 1 to Court 12, so higher numbers can appear when extra rooms sit.

Hearing counts in the table come from this site's stored lists. Access notes come from the official Find a Court record.

Read together, the two columns show something no single source does. About four in ten hearings in that period were listed in Courts 5 to 8, the rooms with no wheelchair access at all. Anyone who needs step-free access should check the courtroom on the list early and raise it with the court.

Courtrooms can change on the day. A case listed in Court 6 may move to a free room in the morning. The screens and the ushers have the final word, so check again once you are through security.

What Kinds of Hearings Fill the Minshull Street List?

Part-heard trials are the largest single group on this court's lists, followed by sentencing hearings and mentions. A part-heard trial is one that has already started and continues that day.

So a courtroom with several "Trial (Part Heard)" rows is usually busy with one or two trials, not a dozen new ones.

The Crown Prosecution Service brought most of the listed cases. About one in six rows named another prosecutor.

None of this means anything about guilt. A listing is a hearing date, and many people on the list have not been convicted of anything. The guide to what happens at a Crown Court explains each stage in plain terms.

Arriving at The Court House on Aytoun Street

Everyone entering Minshull Street passes through a security arch, and all bags are searched. Find a Court says so plainly. Queues build before 10am because most of the day's hearings are timed then, so arriving early is the best way to reach your courtroom on time.

A simple order for the morning:

1. Set your map or satnav to M1 3FS, not to a street name.
2. Bring your letter, or your case reference from the list, and any photo identification your solicitor asked for.
3. Tell a security officer before the arch if you have a pacemaker, as Find a Court asks.
4. Check the screens or ask an usher which courtroom your case is in today.
5. Find your solicitor, the Witness Service or the usher outside that courtroom.

The building has no parking of its own. The facilities panel below names the public car parks that Find a Court lists. Public transport into Manchester city centre is usually the simpler choice. The Find a Court "Get directions" link and a route planner will give current options.

Expect airport-style checks on liquids and sharp items, and keep phones switched off in court. The security checks guide lists what is commonly refused at the door.

Can Wheelchair Users Reach Every Courtroom?

No. Find a Court lists no wheelchair access to Courts 5, 6, 7 and 8. In Courts 1, 2, 3, 4, 9 and 10, wheelchair users can reach only the well of the court.

The well is the floor area in front of the judge, where lawyers sit. Other parts of those rooms may be out of reach.

Find a Court describes Minshull Street as a Grade II* listed building, which limits how far it can be altered. There is a lift at the entrance and level access to most areas. Lifts also serve the first and second floors.

Raise access needs well before the hearing, not on the morning. The court has an accommodation contact for adjustments, shown in the contact panel. A case can sometimes move to a room that suits you, but only if the listing office knows in time.

Other support listed on Find a Court includes hearing enhancement in every courtroom, Sunflower lanyards on request and assistance dogs. An accessible toilet sits on the ground floor. If you are a witness, the Witness Service can help arrange any of this with you.

How Can You Follow the Day Once It Starts?

The official XHIBIT Daily Court Status page shows what is happening in each Minshull Street courtroom from 10am. HMCTS updates it when events occur in court. The XHIBIT page for Minshull Street lists Court 1 to Court 12 with a status for each.

It also has a second table headed "Minshull St Sitting At Stockport", so some Minshull Street hearings may sit in a Stockport building. No public source explains the arrangement in detail.

Always follow the address on your letter, and ask the court office if it is unclear.

A case can vanish between the afternoon list and the next morning. Common reasons include an adjournment, a plea entered earlier, a moved courtroom or a move to the other Manchester site. Reporting restrictions can also hide the name, so the row may still be there with the surname replaced by asterisks.

Search the list by case reference first, since names may be withheld. Then check the Crown Square list for the same day. The guide to cases missing from a list walks through the remaining reasons and who to ask.

Witnesses, Families and Jurors at Minshull Street

Find a Court says Minshull Street has a separate waiting area for witnesses, apart from the public waiting areas outside the courtrooms. Ask security or an usher on arrival, as you will not find it by following the crowd. Prosecution witnesses usually hear from the Witness Service before the day.

Witnesses often wait for hours here because so much of the list is part-heard trials. Being called later than expected is normal and does not mean anything has gone wrong. The witness guide explains how the day runs and what to bring.

Family members can sit in the public seats for most adult hearings. In Courts 5 to 8, a family member who uses a wheelchair cannot reach the room, so raise it with the court before the day. The guide for family members and the public gallery guide cover behaviour, phones and what to do if a judge clears the court.

Jurors should follow the summons and any letter from the Jury Central Summoning Bureau. Expect long stretches of waiting at first. Part-heard trials on the list are where jurors already sworn return each day.

Defendants on bail should report to their solicitor or the usher outside the listed courtroom. The guide for defendants covers what to expect, but legal questions about a case belong with a solicitor.

A Grade II* Police Court Still Hearing Cases

**The Minshull Street building was built as the City Police Courts and is listed at Grade II, a grade kept for particularly important buildings.* The Historic England list entry records it under that name, listed on 3 October 1974. The list description dates it to 1868 to 1871 and names the architect as Thomas Worthington.

Its age explains a lot about a visit today. Its Victorian courtrooms were not designed with wheelchair access in mind. Each change must respect the listing, which is why access varies so much from room to room.

Building work is under way. A September 2026 written answer to Parliament said HMCTS is progressing several improvement projects here. They include lift upgrades, courtroom improvement works, roof works, replacement skylights and ventilation improvements. The answer itself notes that listed status can lengthen the timescales.

The same answer gave a repair record. Between August 2025 and August 2026, emergency and critical repairs at Minshull Street were all completed within 24 hours or the next working day. More than 300 urgent and routine repairs were recorded in that year, with 86% finished within target.

For visitors, works can mean a closed lift, a moved courtroom or a different route inside. Check the list on the morning and ask at the door if signs differ from what you expected.

Who Are the Judges, and How Big Is the Backlog?

The official daily list names the judge or recorder sitting in each Minshull Street courtroom, so the list answers who is sitting today. Judges move between rooms and courts, so a name on one day's list says little about the next.

The written guide on this page does not name individual judges. Titles such as His Honour Judge or Recorder tell you the type of judge.

No official backlog figure for Minshull Street alone is published. In an April 2026 answer to a question about Manchester's Crown Courts, the government said criminal court data is published by local criminal justice area, not by individual court.

What the lists do show is how busy the courtrooms are. Eight or nine rooms sat on each listed day, with trials taking a large share of the time. For a particular case, the court office or a solicitor is the only reliable source of dates.

How Names Appear on This Site's Minshull Street List

Defendants' first names never appear on this site, and many rows show no name at all. Where a surname reads clearly from the official list and no reporting restriction applies, the row shows asterisks then the surname. Anything else shows asterisks only.

About one hearing in five on the Minshull Street lists from 6 to 15 October 2026 carried a note that reporting restrictions may apply. Those rows show no name.

Youth cases and restricted entries are left off entirely.

Names are not searchable on this site. If you are named on a list and want it removed, use the removal request form. Requests are honoured.

Other Courts Near Minshull Street

Crown Square comes first in the list below, because a Manchester Crown Court case can sit at either site.

Its listings have their own page. Other Manchester courts, including the magistrates' court, follow it.

• Manchester Crown Court (Crown Square): The city's other Crown Court site, at Crown Square, M3 3FL. Check which one your letter names.
• Manchester Tribunal Hearing Centre, M1 4AH (0.3 km away)
• Manchester Employment Tribunal, M3 2JA (1.0 km away)
• Manchester Magistrates' Court, M60 1PR (1.1 km away)
• Manchester Crown Court (Crown Square), M3 3FL (1.1 km away)

Questions People Ask About Minshull Street

Short answers below cover tomorrow's list, results, parking, phone numbers, video links and the Stockport table. Each is built on the official Find a Court record and this court's own lists.

For anything about a particular case, including new dates after an adjournment, the court office or a solicitor remains the right contact.