Before the Judicature Acts of 1873 - 1875, the three ancient common law Courts of the King’s (or Queen’s) Bench, Common Pleas, and Exchequer of Pleas all sat in Westminster Hall, William II’s ceremonial building next to Parliament. When the Acts replaced the old Courts with a single High Court of Justice, it was thought that the new Court should have suitably impressive new accommodation. The Gothic-style Royal Courts of Justice on the Strand, usually called simply “the Law Courts”, were opened in 1882. This was the Commercial Court’s first home. The Court first sat there at 10.30 on Friday 1st March 1895, when Mr Justice Mathew J heard 32 summonses in Room 99. A week later, he tried the Court’s first case, Burney v. Elliman, in Court 9.

The Law Courts soon became overcrowded: in 1912, T.E. Scrutton, one of the most famous Commercial Judges, had to try his first High Court case in a shed in the car park. Several new blocks were added during the 20th Century. By the beginning of the 21st Century, the Commercial Judges were scattered between different parts of the Law Courts and St Dunstan’s House, a 1980’s block several hundred yards away on Fetter Lane.

In 2011, the whole of the Commercial Court moved to more modern accommodation in the Rolls Building, a newly-built, purpose-designed court complex. With 31 courts, including “super-court” facilities, and numerous consultation rooms, the Rolls Building is the largest specialist centre in the world for the resolution of commercial disputes. The building also houses the Technology & Construction Court, which deals with construction and engineering litigation and computer and software disputes, and a number of other specialist Judges and tribunals.