Former Corn Exchange

Former Corn Exchange

This building began as a corn exchange constructed in 1847-8 to designs by W A Nicholson and was significantly extended in 1878-1880 to designs by Bellamy & Hardy. It now contains shops and a café.

The building is constructed of ashlar limestone and gault brick with timber and glazed shop fronts and a slate roof covering. It is rectangular on plan with an apsidal east elevation.

The structure comprises two distinct ranges: the original, taller range to the west and a later, lower range adjoining to the east.

The west range, which now contains a bank on the ground floor and offices above, is principally of two tall storeys, with a three-storey element to the west elevation. It is arranged on a square plan with the principal west elevation arranged across five bays and the north and south flanking walls arranged across three wider bays. The principal western elevation is faced in ashlar limestone, rusticated on the ground floor. The three central bays project to form a four-columned Corinthian portico under a modillioned pediment rising from a ground-floor base with three round-arched openings, now containing fixed shop windows. A balustrade runs between the lower parts of the columns on the first floor. There are three tall six-over-six sash windows within plain surrounds at first-floor level beneath the portico, and a set of three three-over-three sash windows above with a string course running between the floors. The portico is flanked by a single bay to the north and south. These bays contain a flat-headed opening on the ground floor, the northernmost bay contains a doorway and the southernmost bay is a glazed shop window. At first-floor level, the outermost bays contain a six-over-six sash window within a moulded architrave with a cornice supported on consoles, flanked by a pair of Corinthian pilasters.

The north and south flank walls are of largely matching design. There are timber shopfronts within the channelled ashlar ground floor, and a single six-over-six sash window on the south elevation. The first floor is of gault brick with pairs of ashlar Corinthian pilasters at either end of each elevation and an ashlar modillioned cornice above. On each elevation there are three six-over-six sash windows within moulded ashlar surrounds with bracketed cornices.

The later east range currently contains a shop on the ground floor and a café on the first floor. It is of two storeys, the upper storey being lower than the corresponding storey of the west range. The north and south elevations are of five equal bays while the east elevation is also of five bays, with three of the bays within a semi-circular bull-nose element and two narrower outer bays, curved at a shallower angle, linking the bull-nose with the north and south elevations. With the exception of the two narrower linking bays, each bay is of uniform design across all three elevations. The ground floor is of channelled render painted beige and contains a tripartite timber shopfront, with a painted rendered cornice running the length of all three elevations. The first floor is of gault brickwork with a tripartite ashlar mullion window containing a combination of fixed and casement timber windows. An ashlar cornice and tall gault brick parapet runs across the top of all three elevations. The two narrower linking bays contain a timber shopfront on the ground floor and a single timber casement window on the first floor. The roof form of the east range, hidden by the parapet, comprises a single pitch angled away from the parapet with a flat central area.