1 Exchange Square

This list entry was subjected to a Minor Enhancement on the 6 June 2022 to update the text, name and address

NZ 4920 NE 8/30

MIDDLESBROUGH EXCHANGE SQUARE, (north side.) No 1

(Formerly listed as Commerce House.)

G.V. II

No 1 Exchange Square is part of a sweep of buildings constructed as part of Middlesbrough’s commercial district which focused upon the railway station and the Exchange. Constructed in 1872, it was built to designs by architect William Henry Blessley (1841-1936) who designed numerous public and commercial buildings in Middlesbrough. In 1885 the ground floor façade was altered for the North Eastern Banking Co to designs by William Lister Newcombe (1857-1929) and William Henry Knowles (1847-1943) of Newcastle. The building was formerly occupied by the North East Chamber of Commerce before being refurbished as private offices and internally linked to No 1 Exchange Place in the early C21. Formerly listed as Commerce House, it is now referred to as Bolckow House.

The building is constructed of sandstone ashlar on the ground floor and brick with stone and polychrome brick dressings on the upper floors on a granite plinth. The roof is of late C20 concrete tile. It forms the end of a curved terrace which includes Nos 2, 2A and 4 Exchange Square and Zetland Buildings. The ground floor is in Jacobethan style with Italianate upper floors and is of three storeys and three bays. The entrance to the right has a renewed door and a blocked four-centred fanlight. Above are enriched spandrels and a band under a mullioned-and-transomed overlight with trefoil-headed upper lights. All are contained within a moulded surround. Above the doorway is rich foliate carving with a roundel with 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, with altered glazing in the lower lights. The upper lights have leaded glazing. Above are two rows of similar blind lights, some holding carved foliate panels. The whole ground floor is surmounted by a moulded cornice with bosses. On the upper floors are round-headed sash windows which are paired in the centre and have palmette capitals to the pilasters. On the first floor these are recessed in a round-headed opening with a plain roundel in a blind tympanum. Above is a bracketed eaves cornice and a centrally located gabled dormer with a pointed window. The roof has a right end stack.

Listing NGR: NZ4965620662