Corn Exchange

BURY ST EDMUNDS

TL8564SW CORNHILL 639-1/14/292 Corn Exchange 07/08/52

GV II

Corn Exchange. 1861-62, altered 1969-70. By Ellis and Woodard, architects of Fenchurch Street, London. Ironwork by Ransomes and Sims of Ipswich. Contractor, Lot Jackaman of Bury St Edmunds. In white brick and freestone, probably Ancaster, with Portland stone for the bases of the pillars; slate roofs. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys; on an island site. The whole building has a stone modillion cornice with stone balustrading above the north and south fronts and over the end bays on the east and west. The south front, designed as a single storey, has a giant hexastyle Ionic portico with a pediment decorated by figures representing Agriculture. The wings flanking the portico have blocked semicircular-headed windows with stone architraves and pediments on consoles, set in stone arched recesses and framed by stone pilasters. The north front has a central pediment with a circular stone panel bearing a coat of arms. The 2-storeyed east and west fronts were altered in 1969/70 to make shop windows on the east side and a shopping arcade on the west. 5 window range with the upper part of the original stone arched semicircular headed windows. The shop fronts are divided into bays by stone pilasters with the central and end bays projecting slightly. A slate-roofed colonnade on the north side, now a shop, was originally part of the town Shambles, which occupied 3 sides of the site on which the Corn Exchange is built. Plain Tuscan columns with stilted segmental arches and iron scroll ornamentation. One original free-standing Tuscan column survives inside, raised and encased in C19 brick. INTERIOR: originally open from floor to roof, with a 7-bay arcade to east and west in which semicircular stone arches were supported by cast-iron columns with wide, heavily foliated caps. The arches are in alternating bands of light and darker stone surmounted by a dentil cornice on the front and back. Ornate keystones carry agricultural motifs such as wheatsheaves and rams' heads, and the central keystone on each side has the entwined initials VR within a roundel decorated with roses, shamrock, daffodils and thistles. The main ribs of the roof are supported on corbels with heavy enriched consoles projecting from the cornice. Glazed roof with cast-iron glazing bars and a decorated central plaster panel.

The upper floor was inserted just below the level of the cast-iron capitals, which are now encased in wooden shuttering. A stage has been built at the north end and 2 flights of stairs inserted within the vestibule of the principal front. (BOE: Pevsner N: Radcliffe E: Suffolk: London: 1974-: 146; White W: Directory of Suffolk: Sheffield: 1874-: 580).

Listing NGR: TL8526664216