Cleveland Police Station and Court House (former)

This building, now occupied by the Redlands Returned Services League on the corner of Passage and North Streets Cleveland represents the second phase of police buildings in Cleveland, while the 1960s building to its west was the third. The first police magistrate operated from the building now known as the Courthouse Restaurant from about 1865 through the 1870s when a new site was gazetted and plans drawn up. The building was completed in 1880. A post and telegraph office was built adjacent in 1884, creating a government precinct. By the early 1930s the police station and courthouse were showing their age. Plans for new buildings were prepared in 1934. The new timber buildings were a standard government plan, although built in mirror image to ensure that the public spaces faced North Street and the private spaces were at the back of the building. The existing lock-up, stables and earth closets from the earlier police station were retained. A new courthouse was built on the site of these outbuildings in 1968, although they were all long gone by then. A new police complex was built in 1998 in Middle Street near the Cleveland CBD.