1 Exchange Square

No 1 Exchange Square, built in 1872, is part of a group of buildings forming Middlesbrough’s commercial district, centred on the railway station and the Exchange. The original designs were by William Henry Blessley, and the ground floor façade was altered in 1885 for the North Eastern Banking Co by William Lister Newcombe and William Henry Knowles. It was formerly occupied by the North East Chamber of Commerce and has since been refurbished as private offices, with internal links to No 1 Exchange Place. The building is now referred to as Bolckow House.

The building is constructed of sandstone ashlar on the ground floor, brick with stone and polychrome brick dressings on the upper floors, and stands upon a granite plinth. The roof is covered in late 20th-century concrete tiles. It forms the end of a curved terrace that includes Nos 2, 2A and 4 Exchange Square and Zetland Buildings. The architectural style is Jacobethan on the ground floor and Italianate above, and it is three storeys high with three bays.

The right-hand entrance has a renewed door and a blocked four-centred fanlight, above which are enriched spandrels and a band under a mullioned-and-transomed overlight with trefoil-headed upper lights, all contained within a moulded surround. Above the doorway is rich foliate carving with a roundel displaying the arms of the Middlesbrough Corporation and bank within a blind mullioned window with a cusped centre light. To the left is a recessed, slightly-canted window with moulded mullions and transoms, and altered glazing in the lower lights, while the upper lights have leaded glazing. Above this are two rows of similar blind lights, some of which contain carved foliate panels. The ground floor is finished with a moulded cornice with bosses. On the upper floors, paired round-headed sash windows have palmette capitals to the pilasters; on the first floor, these are recessed within a round-headed opening featuring a plain roundel in a blind tympanum. Above this is a bracketed eaves cornice and a centrally located gabled dormer with a pointed window. A stack is located at the right end of the roof.