The Corn Exchange is a commercial building on The Payment in

St Ives, Cambridgeshire St Ives is a medieval market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Huntingdonshire district of Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Great Ouse, and there is St Ives Bridge, a historic stone bridge dating from 1 ...

, England. The structure, which is currently used as an events venue, is a Grade II

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 mid-19th century, a group of local businessmen formed a company known as the "St Ives Corn Exchange and Public Hall Company" to finance and commission a new corn exchange for the town. The building was designed by Robert Hutchinson of

Huntingdon Huntingdon is a market town in the Huntingdonshire district of Cambridgeshire, England. The town was given its town charter by John, King of England, King John in 1205. It was the county town of the historic county of Huntingdonshire. Oliver C ...

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 yellow brick with red brick and stone dressings and was completed in 1864. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage of three bays facing onto The Pavement. The central bay, which was slightly projected forward, featured a doorway with a

fanlight A fanlight is a form of lunette window (transom window), often semicircular or semi-elliptical in shape, with glazing (window), glazing bars or tracery sets radiating out like an open Hand fan, fan. It is placed over another window or a doorway, ...

, an

archivolt An archivolt (or voussure) is an ornamental Molding (decorative), moulding or band following the curve on the underside of an arch. It is composed of bands of ornamental mouldings (or other architectural elements) surrounding an arched opening, ...

and a keystone, flanked by banded

pilaster In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an ext ...

s and

brackets A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. They come in four main pairs of shapes, as given in the box to the right, which also gives their n ...

supporting a

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 ...

. The other bays on the ground floor were fenestrated with

sash window A sash window or hung sash window is made of one or more movable panels, or "sashes". The individual sashes are traditionally paned windows, but can now contain an individual sheet (or sheets, in the case of double glazing) of glass. History ...

s with

architrave In classical architecture, an architrave (; , also called an epistyle; ) is the lintel or beam, typically made of wood or stone, that rests on the capitals of columns. The term can also apply to all sides, including the vertical members, ...

window cill A windowsill (also written window sill or window-sill, and less frequently in British English, cill) is the horizontal structure or surface at the bottom of a window. Window sills serve to structurally support and hold the window in place. The ...

s and bracketed cornices, while the first floor was fenestrated by round headed windows with archivolts and keystones. At roof level, there was an

entablature An entablature (; nativization of Italian , from "in" and "table") is the superstructure of moldings and bands which lies horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals. Entablatures are major elements of classical architecture, and ...

, a

dentil A dentil (from Lat. ''dens'', a tooth) is a small block used as a repeating ornament in the bedmould of a cornice. Dentils are found in ancient Greek and Roman architecture, and also in later styles such as Neoclassical, Federal, Georgian Rev ...

cornice and a

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an upward extension of a wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/brea ...

, as well as a

pediment Pediments are a form of gable in classical architecture, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the cornice (an elaborated lintel), or entablature if supported by columns.Summerson, 130 In an ...

over the central bay. Internally, the principal room was the Charter Hall which could accommodate at least 500 farmers and merchants. The building was also used as an events venue from an early stage: regular functions included the Huntingdonshire Horticultural Show. However, 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. After the building was acquired by St Ives Borough Council in 1947, the company which had originally financed and commissioned it was wound up in 1950. Following local government organisation in 1974, ownership of the building passed to St Ives Town Council, but after a survey identified structural problems with the building, the town council decided to close it in 2001. A campaign group, Action Corn Exchange, was formed to raise money for the restoration of the building in 2006. After the necessary money had been raised and the town council had agreed to carry out repairs, a new company, the Corn Exchange Community Interest Company, was formed to take over management of the building in December 2009. Following extensive refurbishment work in the first half of 2010, the building was officially re-opened by the mayor, David Hodge, on 24 June 2010. Since then the building has hosted numerous organisations including drama and dance groups, exercise classes, University of the Third Age meetings, cinema performances and comedy nights.

References

{{reflist Commercial buildings completed in 1864 St Ives, Cambridgeshire Grade II listed buildings in Cambridgeshire Corn exchanges in England

History

See also

References