Solemn:
You're absolutely right, at any public court there will be lists posted with the names of the cases (I suspect that they don't do this for youth and family courts, which are closed to the public, though that's only speculation).
However, listing officers will have the name of the cases, and also will have a brief blurb about what the case concerns, which is not publicly posted. These internal listings will, in the case of criminal courts, give (generally) the time of the offense, the specifics of the offense, the informant (whether it is being prosecuted by CPS, Securicor, or someone else). In addition, they generally know whether it will be a guilty/not guilty plea, and whether the case is going to include things like videolink evidence, special measures for vulnerable witnesses, CCTV or other tech evidence, or any equally sexy stuff.