Former Corn Exchange

NT 9952 622/11/10015

BERWICK-UPON-TWEED SANDGATE (East side) Nos.1A and 3 Former Corn Exchange

GV II

Corn exchange converted to swimming pool, now vacant, with attached shop now offices. 1858, converted c.1965. Dressed stone and ashlar with ashlar dressings and Welsh slate roofs. Italianate style. Two storeys. Main street front has seven window facade with moulded plinth, rusticated quoins, moulded entablature at ground and first floor, surmounted by a balustraded parapet decorated with urns. Swimming pool section to right and offices to left divided by taller square tower. Pool has off-centre entrance with C20 glazed doors in moulded ashlar surround topped with large segmental pediment, either side are single triple light windows with rounded heads in moulded pilaster surrounds and decorated keystones. To right another doorway with pedimented hood supported on brackets. Above a pair of segment headed sashes in moulded ashlar surrounds with bracketed hoods and keystones, either side similar triple windows and to right a further single similar window. Tower to left has round headed doorway on south side with single sash to west, above a single sash on each front. Tower itself which projects above parapet has round arched louvred bell opening to each face, chamfered corners decorated with brackets and whole topped with square dome and iron finial. Offices to right have curved corners with single round headed window to right and double doors, with fanlight to left, between 2-pane former shop windows. Above two single plain sash windows in moulded ashlar surrounds with flat hoods. Left return has three windows with central large window flanked by a blind window to right and doorway to left, and above three sashes in moulded surrounds. Rear facade has dramatic curved front with four round headed boarded windows. INTERIOR: has former dealing hall deeply moulded and coved ceiling with glazed panels hidden above false ceiling frame, west gallery supported on cast-iron columns now buried within later dividing wall, gallery has cast-iron balustrade with moulded wooden handrail now part of upper glazed screen. Remainder of building retains original features including two stone staircases with iron balusters, panel doors in moulded surrounds, panelled window frames and shutters. This is a good, relatively large-scale example of a Corn Exchange, a significant building in a market town. It is surprisingly little altered despite its conversion in c.1965.

Listing NGR: NT9990652690