Corn Exchange

The Corn Exchange is a large commercial building located at 1260 King Street, built between 1878 and 1882 in a Renaissance style with strong French influences. Designed by Brightwen Binyon of Ipswich, it adjoins the Town Hall to the north, creating an interesting block of High Victorian civic architecture. The building has three storeys and attics, featuring a parapet adorned with urns and a bold modillion cornice. There are additional cornices at the window sill levels of the first and second storeys.

The south front on King Street has three projecting wings above a continuous ground storey of shops and a central entrance. The end wings each have two windows on the second storey and three on the first storey, while the central wing has four windows on the second storey and three on the first. Each wing's return side has one window, and the recessed bays feature two windows that rise through two storeys. The east front on Princes Street includes eight windows on the second storey and ten on the first.

The windows are grouped in one, two, and three lights, framed by pilasters, and all are double-hung sashes without glazing bars. The second storey windows have round-headed arches with architraves and short Corinthian columns, while the first storey windows feature stilted segmental arches with architraves and short Corinthian columns. The ground storey has shop windows set between rusticated piers. The attics are illuminated by high dormers, with two lights in the centre and one light at the outer ends, all featuring pilasters and pediments, with segmental pediments on the outer dormers. The roofs are slate, designed with French-style pavilions and ornamental iron railings along the ridge lines.

The Corn Exchange, along with the Swan Inn, forms a group with the National Westminster Bank on Princes Street and Nos. 1 and 2 Arcade Street. It also forms a group with the adjoining Town Hall to the north.