The Corn Exchange is a market hall and events venue in the Market Street,

Exeter Exeter ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and the county town of Devon in South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter w ...

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

, England. It was designed by the city architect, Harold Rowe and completed in 1960.

History

The current building was commissioned to replace a structure known as the "Lower Market" which was bounded by Fore Street, Market Street, Guinea Street and Milk Street. The Lower Market was designed by

Charles Fowler Charles Fowler (17 May 1792 – 26 September 1867) was an English architect, born and baptised at Cullompton, Cullompton, Devon. He is especially noted for his design of market buildings, including Covent Garden Market in London. Life Educati ...

in the

neoclassical style Neoclassicism, also spelled Neo-classicism, emerged as a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassici ...

, built in

ashlar Ashlar () is a cut and dressed rock (geology), stone, worked using a chisel to achieve a specific form, typically rectangular in shape. The term can also refer to a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, a ...

stone and was officially opened on 9 December 1836. The principal rooms were a long

colonnade In classical architecture, a colonnade is a long sequence of columns joined by their entablature, often free-standing, or part of a building. Paired or multiple pairs of columns are normally employed in a colonnade which can be straight or curv ...

d main hall which was used as a butchers' market and a room, above the main entrance in Guinea Street, which operated as a

corn exchange A corn exchange is a building where merchants trade grains. The word "corn" in British English denotes all cereal grains, such as wheat and barley; in the United States these buildings were called grain exchanges. Such trade was common in towns ...

. The Lower Market was badly damaged by German bombing in the

Baedeker Blitz The Baedeker Blitz or Baedeker raids was a series of bombing raids by the ''Luftwaffe'' on the United Kingdom during World War II in April and May 1942. Towns and cities in England were targeted for their cultural value as part of a demoralisat ...

on 4 May 1942 during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and was consequently demolished in the late 1950s. The new building was designed by the city architect, Harold Rowe, in the

Modernist style Modern architecture, also called modernist architecture, or the modern movement, is an architectural movement and style that was prominent in the 20th century, between the earlier Art Deco and later postmodern movements. Modern architecture wa ...

, built in concrete and glass and was opened as "St George's Hall" in 1960. The design involved a main frontage in three sections facing onto Market Street. The central section featured a tall brick structure with

diamond Diamond is a Allotropes of carbon, solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Diamond is tasteless, odourless, strong, brittle solid, colourless in pure form, a poor conductor of e ...

-shaped decoration, to which the city

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon f ...

was fixed at first floor level, flanked by full-height concrete pillars supporting a perforated beam. The three-storey side sections were faced with alternating bands of blue panelling and glass. Internally, the principal rooms were a market hall on the ground floor and an events venue on the first floor. The architectural historian,

Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (195 ...

, was unimpressed with the design and described it as "a rather tatty effort in a belated Festival of Britain spirit". The events venue on the first floor was a popular venue in the 1970s and 1980s: performers included the rock band

Thin Lizzy Thin Lizzy are an Irish rock band formed in Dublin in 1969. The band initially consisted of bass guitarist, lead vocalist and principal songwriter Phil Lynott, drummer Brian Downey, guitarist Eric Bell and organist Eric Wrixon although Wr ...

in February 1972, the rock band,

New Model Army The New Model Army or New Modelled Army was a standing army formed in 1645 by the Parliamentarians during the First English Civil War, then disbanded after the Stuart Restoration in 1660. It differed from other armies employed in the 1639 t ...

, in May 1985 and the

pub rock Pub rock is a subgenre of rock music that emerged in the early to mid-1970s in the United Kingdom. A back-to-basics movement, which incorporated roots rock, pub rock was a reaction against the expensively-recorded and produced progressive rock ...

band Dr. Feelgood in November 1989. Following a refurbishment in 2007, the building was re-branded as the "Corn Exchange" recalling one of the uses of the earlier structure on the site. The works, which cost £1.8 million, involved improvements to the auditorium on the first floor as well as the conversion of the ground floor into a sustainable "food emporium". The auditorium has a capacity of 500, seated or standing. There are also two small meeting rooms. In January 2020,

Exeter City Council Exeter City Council is the Local government in England, local authority for the city of Exeter in Devon, England. Exeter has had a city council since medieval times, which has been reformed on numerous occasions. Since 1974 it has been a non-met ...

confirmed that it was considering making further improvements to the Corn Exchange as an alternative to a commissioning a completely new venue for major public events in the city. One of the episodes of the

BBC New Comedy Award The BBC New Comedy Award first took place in 1995, and it is considered to be one of the top UK comedy newcomer awards. It was axed in 2006, being replaced by a nationwide talent hunt that places its emphasis on sketch writing and filmed perfor ...

was held at the venue in 2022.

Notes

References

{{reflist Commercial buildings completed in 1960

Buildings and structures in Exeter

History

See also

Notes

References