Exchange Building

The Exchange Building is a Grade II listed structure located on the northwest side of Rutland Street in Leicester. Built in 1888 and designed by Stockdale Harrison of Leicester, it serves as a combination of shops and offices. The building is constructed from red brick with blue brick and ashlar dressings and stands three stories tall.

The main façade facing Rutland Street features 13 windows arranged asymmetrically around a tall, off-centre main entrance. This entrance includes a moulded ashlar doorway with wrought iron gates and a dated cartouche above, inscribed with "EXCHANGE BUILDINGS." Above the entrance, there is a four-light sash window divided by ashlar mullions, and further up, a round-headed window with four lights below a moulded brick and ashlar arch leading to a semi-circular window with a carved keystone. A square tower projects above the main entrance, featuring a triple sash window, a brick parapet, and square corner finials topped with a square hipped plain tile roof and tall lead finials.

On either side of the entrance, original wooden shopfronts are present, featuring recessed doorways with overlights and large plate glass windows, complemented by smaller top lights with leaded tracery. Wooden pilasters separate each window, and there are continuous moulded wooden fascia boards above. Similar shopfronts extend around the canted corners at both ends and continue onto the side façades facing Halford Street and Wigston Street.

The first floor showcases five canted oriel windows on the right and six similar windows on the left, all topped with plain tile hipped roofs and upper windows featuring margin lights. The second floor displays slightly irregular alternating double sashes and triple sashes within round-headed openings, with terracotta infill. The canted corners at either end and the façade facing Halford Street exhibit similar window arrangements. The Wigston Street façade is simpler, with a single central window flanked by triple windows on the first floor and a round-headed single window above, flanked by pairs of sash windows.