Tower Bridge Magistrates Court to close

Tower Bridge is one of 93 magistrates courts to close as part of a review started in June.

Mr Djanogly said that the current network of county courts and magistrates courts was unsustainable.

In 2009 the grade II listed court building, which is shared with the Metropolitan Police's flying squad, was valued at more than £4 million.

The court has annual operating costs of £268,000 but there is a maintenance backlog of £810,000.

The Courts Service plans to transfer cases currently heard in Tooley Street to an expanded Camberwell Green Magistrates Court where there are plans to spend about £10 million on building five additional courtrooms.

Shadow justice minister Andrew Slaughter described the minister's plans as a "wholesale destruction of the local justice system".

He told the Commons that the Government was engaged in a "crude cost-cutting exercise with none of the benefits that [the minister] has half-heartedly claimed".