The Wool Exchange Building in

Bradford Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

is a grade I-

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

built as a wool-trading centre in the 19th century. The grandeur of its

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

architecture is symbolic of the wealth and importance that wool brought to Bradford. Today it is a Waterstones bookshop as well as a cafe.

Design history

It was built between 1864 and 1867. The commission to design the building was given great importance in Bradford and

John Ruskin John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English writer, philosopher, art critic and polymath of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and politi ...

was invited to give his advice. In the lecture, Ruskin famously declared 'I do not care about this Exchange - because you don't'. Ruskin argued that good architecture could only emerge from a pious, paternalistic society and that the Exchange represented the worst form of exploitative capitalism. There was a competition to design the building: entries included one from Norman Shaw, but it was won by the local architects Lockwood and Mawson. The foundation stone was laid by the then Prime Minister, Lord Palmerston. The architectural style employed is

Venetian Gothic Venetian Gothic is the particular form of Italian Gothic architecture typical of Venice, originating in local building requirements, with some influence from Byzantine architecture, and some from Islamic architecture, reflecting Venice's trading ...

with some Flemish influence in the tower. Ruskin was dismayed by the use of a Gothic revivalist style in that it imitated the aesthetic but not the spiritual conditions of Medieval society. He had expressed similar displeasure after the construction of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History in a Gothic revivalist style in 1861. The accompanying photograph shows the architectural detail of the tower and arcading well, but the light is not strong enough for the contrasting stone colours to emerge. When the building was listed in 1963, the interior of the hall was officially described as follows:

"The main hall is still used as a Wool exchange and has finely detailed lofty
hammer-beam roof A hammerbeam roof is a decorative, open timber roof truss typical of English Gothic architecture and has been called "...the most spectacular endeavour of the English Medieval carpenter". They are traditionally timber framed, using short beams pr ...
with wrought iron work decoration. The hall is surrounded by tall polished granite columns with foliate capitals and there is an outer south aisle arcade with good naturalistic foliage carving. Lively wrought ironwork balcony and staircase balustrade." English Heritage Archive.

The "good, naturalistic foliage carving" and all other architectural carving (except the figures by Tolmie at the entrance) was carved by

Mawer and Ingle Mawer and Ingle was a company of architectural sculptors, based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, between 1860 and 1871. It comprised cousins Charles Mawer (born 1839) and William Ingle (1828–1870), and Catherine Mawer (1804–1877) who was ...

of Leeds.''Leeds Times'', Saturday 08 June 1867 p5 col.6: Bradford, Another statue for Peel Park
"Messrs. Mawer and Ingle, sculptors, Leeds, whose artistic excellencies have been proved in the carvings adorning our new Exchange"

Trading practices

The trading on the Exchange was by verbal contract only, each party keeping a separate note of the price, quantity and delivery date. Members only (holding tickets authorised by the Committee, usually sponsored by an employing firm) were allowed on the trading floor, but there was a walk around the floor where freelance salesmen and independent traders were allowed to wait in an attempt to catch a member's eye and close a deal "off floor". "Off floor" you took your chance on the wool delivered being up to sample; all "on floor" deals involved the wool being delivered via the conditioning house on Canal Road where the wool was checked for quality (

staple Staple may refer to: *Staple food, a foodstuff that forms the basic constituent of a diet *Staple (fastener), a small formed metal fastener **Surgical staple Arts, entertainment, and media * Staple (band), a Christian post-hardcore band ** ''Stap ...

length) and dry weight, since adding water was a favourite swindle. To be a member - to "have a ticket" - was a social distinction in the old wool-trading Bradford.

Spinks' restaurant

Almost as socially important as the Exchange itself was Spinks' restaurant (with its trademark Egyptian sphinx embossed on all the cutlery), which was in a semi-basement below the building. There were two public rooms: the Restaurant, which served a "Plated Menu", and the Buttery, which served a full "Silver Service" menu. The menus were almost identical and came from the same kitchen, just the style of service differed. In practice, almost as much trading and networking went on in these two rooms as on the floor upstairs. Since the restaurant was open to the public, not just to members, the place was a centre for Bradford business life in general.

The building today

The building has not been used for trading wool since the early 1970s. Waterstones uses the ground floor area for book sales. The best views of the interior are available from the coffee shop on the mezzanine floor. Modern plate-glass windows on this side of the building let in plenty of natural light: something that was lacking in the old days of wool-trading. For more than 15 years, coffeehouse chain

Starbucks Starbucks Corporation is an American multinational chain of coffeehouses and roastery reserves headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It is the world's largest coffeehouse chain. As of November 2021, the company had 33,833 stores in 80 c ...

occupied the space on the mezzanine floor. However, in February 2013, they closed this branch, with Waterstones replacing it with their own 'Café W' brand which opened in March 2013. As well as Waterstones and Café W, the building currently hosts a newsagent, pizza restaurant, panini shop, employment agency and the Exchange Ale House. The exterior has sculptures of various heroes of the textile industry such as

Joseph Marie Jacquard Joseph Marie Charles ''dit'' (called or nicknamed) Jacquard (; 7 July 1752 – 7 August 1834) was a French weaver and merchant. He played an important role in the development of the earliest programmable loom (the " Jacquard loom"), which in tu ...

and also explorers and politicians. In keeping with this semantic, there is a large statue of the

Free Trade Free trade is a trade policy that does not restrict imports or exports. It can also be understood as the free market idea applied to international trade. In government, free trade is predominantly advocated by political parties that hold econo ...

campaigner Richard Cobden within the building. Cobden was twice

member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for The West Riding of Yorkshire and the statue was donated by a George Henry Booth, of the firm Firth Booth and Co., an American citizen who had business in Bradford. The building stands opposite Arndale House, which was built on the site of the Victorian

Swan Arcade Swan Arcade were a British folk music vocal group formed in 1970. "A leading light of the British folk revival" they sang a wide variety of songs, including blues, pop and rock and roll, as well as traditional folk music, mostly performed a cap ...

, the former workplace of J B Priestley which was controversially demolished in 1962.

References

External links