The Leeds Corn Exchange is a shopping mall in

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a Metropolitan counties of England, metropolitan and Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and east, South Yorkshire and De ...

, England. The structure, which was commissioned 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 ...

, is a grade I

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

The first corn exchange in Leeds was located at the north end of

Briggate Briggate is a pedestrianised principal shopping street in Leeds city centre, England. Historically it was the main street, leading north from Leeds Bridge, and housed markets, merchant's houses and other business premises. It contains many h ...

and was opened in 1829. By the mid-19th century, it was considered too small, and civic officials decided to commission a larger building. The new building was designed by Cuthbert Brodrick, a Hull architect best known for

Leeds Town Hall Leeds Town Hall is a 19th-century municipal building on The Headrow (formerly Park Lane), Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. Planned to include law courts, a council chamber, offices, a public hall, and a suite of ceremonial rooms, it was built be ...

, 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 stone 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 rustification and was completed in 1863. The

oval An oval () is a closed curve in a plane which resembles the outline of an egg. The term is not very specific, but in some areas of mathematics (projective geometry, technical drawing, etc.), it is given a more precise definition, which may inc ...

-shaped building featured two semi-circular porches with doorways which were flanked by

Tuscan order The Tuscan order (Latin ''Ordo Tuscanicus'' or ''Ordo Tuscanus'', with the meaning of Etruscan order) is one of the two classical orders developed by the Romans, the other being the composite order. It is influenced by the Doric order, but wit ...

columns supporting

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 ...

s, and was fenestrated by recessed round headed windows on both floors. The design of the dome was based on that of the Bourse de commerce of Paris by

François-Joseph Bélanger François-Joseph Bélanger (; 12 April 1744 – 1 May 1818) was a French architect and decorator working in the Neoclassicism, Neoclassic style. Life Born in Paris, Bélanger attended the Académie Royale d'Architecture (1764–1766) whe ...

and François Brunet, completed in 1811. 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 ...

, praised the design which he regarded as "remarkably independent and functional". 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. However, in the late 1980s Speciality Shops plc restored it and converted it into a retail facility. After a further restoration carried out by new owners,

Zurich Financial Services Zurich Insurance Group Ltd. is a Swiss insurance company, headquartered in Zürich, and the country's largest insurer. the group is the world's 98th largest public company according to ''Forbes'' Global 2000s list, and in 2011, it ranked 94th ...

, the Corn Exchange re-opened in November 2008 as a boutique shopping centre for independent retailers. The ground level was occupied by Piazza by Anthony until its sudden closure in June 2013. A_City_Without_Seams_launch_in_the_Corn_Exchange_from_above

A_City_Without_Seams_launch_in_the_Corn_Exchange_from_above

In 2017 the Corn Exchange was acquired by property company Rushbond. , the Corn Exchange contains about 30 independent retailers and food outlets. It is described as "one of only three remaining Corn Exchanges still functioning as a centre for trade in Britain", albeit no longer functioning as a corn exchange. The Corn Exchange has also served as a venue for music events such as the South Asian Arts UK Summer Solstice Festival in June 2023. The building was depicted in an official

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

trailer for the

2021 Rugby League World Cup The 2021 Rugby League World Cup (RLWC2021) was a collection of world cups in the sport of rugby league, held in England from 15 October to 19 November 2022. England won hosting rights for the competition on 27 October 2016. The bid received � ...

(in reference to Leeds being one of the host cities).

References

External links

Leeds Corn Exchange website
{{Coord, 53.7959, -1.5402, display=title, region:GB_scale:2000 Grade I listed buildings in Leeds Grade I listed markets and exchanges Commercial buildings completed in 1864 Shopping centres in Leeds Cuthbert Brodrick buildings 1864 establishments in England Corn exchanges in England

History

See also

References

External links