The Corn Exchange is a commercial building in Constitution Street,

Leith Leith (; ) is a port area in the north of Edinburgh, Scotland, founded at the mouth of the Water of Leith and is home to the Port of Leith. The earliest surviving historical references are in the royal charter authorising the construction of ...

, Scotland. The structure, which accommodates studio space and an exhibition gallery, is a Category A

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

History

In the first half of the 19th century, commercial activity in the Port of Leith was focussed on the Exchange Buildings in Constitution Street. However, in the mid-19th century, a group of local corn merchants decided to form a company to finance and commission a dedicated corn exchange: the site that they selected, on the opposite side of Baltic Street, had been occupied by an old naval yard. The foundation stone for the new building was laid by the deputy chairman of Leith Chamber of Commerce, W. G. Cochrane, on 16 October 1860. It was designed by Peddie and Kinnear in the

Italianate style The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style combined its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Ita ...

, 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 at a cost of £6,500 and was completed in 1861. The design involved a three-stage

octagon In geometry, an octagon () is an eight-sided polygon or 8-gon. A '' regular octagon'' has Schläfli symbol and can also be constructed as a quasiregular truncated square, t, which alternates two types of edges. A truncated octagon, t is a ...

al tower on the corner of Constitution Street and Baltic Street with a wing of four bays extending along Constitution Street and a wing of seven bays extending along Baltic Street. The tower featured a segmental-headed doorway with a fanlight flanked by a pair of segmental headed windows on the ground floor, three round headed windows on the first floor, and three bi-partite windows on the second floor. The tower was surmounted by a

modillion A modillion is an ornate bracket, more horizontal in shape and less imposing than a corbel. They are often seen underneath a Cornice (architecture), cornice which helps to support them. Modillions are more elaborate than dentils (literally transl ...

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative Moulding (decorative), moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, ar ...

, a

dome A dome () is an architectural element similar to the hollow upper half of a sphere. There is significant overlap with the term cupola, which may also refer to a dome or a structure on top of a dome. The precise definition of a dome has been a m ...

, a

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, usually dome-like structure on top of a building often crowning a larger roof or dome. Cupolas often serve as a roof lantern to admit light and air or as a lookout. The word derives, via Ital ...

and a

weather vane A wind vane, weather vane, or weathercock is an instrument used for showing the direction of the wind. It is typically used as an architectural ornament to the highest point of a building. The word ''vane'' comes from the Old English word , m ...

. The wings were fenestrated by segmental headed windows on the ground floor and by round headed windows on the first floor. At roof level, there was a

frieze In classical architecture, the frieze is the wide central section of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic order, Ionic or Corinthian order, Corinthian orders, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Patera (architecture), Paterae are also ...

decorated by

patera In the material culture of classical antiquity, a ''patera'' () or ''phiale'' ( ) is a shallow ceramic or metal libation bowl. It often has a bulbous indentation ('' omphalos'', "belly button") in the center underside to facilitate holding it, ...

e and a modillioned cornice. On the constitution Street frontage, there was an additional section of five bays with a prominent frieze, depicting

putti A putto (; plural putti ) is a figure in a work of art depicted as a chubby male child, usually naked and very often winged. Originally limited to profane passions in symbolism,Dempsey, Charles. ''Inventing the Renaissance Putto''. University ...

taking part in agricultural activities, which was carved by John Rhind and placed at first floor level. Internally, the principal room was the main hall, which was long and wide and featured a roof supported by timber arches. The use of the building as a corn exchange declined significantly in the wake of the Great Depression of British Agriculture in the late 19th century. Instead, it was re-purposed as a public events venue: early speakers included the

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

Lord Palmerston Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston (20 October 1784 – 18 October 1865), known as Lord Palmerston, was a British statesman and politician who served as prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1855 to 1858 and from 1859 to 1865. A m ...

, on 2 April 1863. It was also used as a drill hall by the Leith Rifle Volunteers, and, later, as a public house. A major programme of works to convert the building into studio space was completed in 2005. The conversion, which also included the creation of an exhibition gallery, was carried out to a design by Patience and Highmore and was commended in the "Best Re-Use of a Listed Building" category at the 2006 Scottish Design Awards.

References

{{reflist Commercial buildings completed in 1861 Category A listed buildings in Edinburgh

Buildings and structures in Leith

History

See also

References