The Exchange was a large and prominent

Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literatur ...

commercial building in central

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

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, on the corner of New Street and Stephenson Place. It was among the many Victorian buildings lost during the 1960s redevelopment of Birmingham.

History

It was built by a private company to the designs of Edward Holmes; construction began in 1863, and the building opened on 2 January 1865. The original cost was a little under £20,000 (),. It was later enlarged to nearly twice the original size between 1876-78 to the designs of J.A. Chatwin. In 1879, the first

telephone exchange A telephone exchange, telephone switch, or central office is a central component of a telecommunications system in the public switched telephone network (PSTN) or in large enterprises. It facilitates the establishment of communication circuits ...

in Birmingham was opened in the building by Henry J T Piercy, who founded the Midland Telephone Exchange Company. The use of the term 'telephone exchange' was taken up simply because of the building it was located in. By 1882 the telephone exchange had moved to new premises. The building was demolished exactly a century after it opened, in 1965.''Pevsner Architectural Guides - Birmingham'', Andy Foster, 2005,

Description

The building was constructed from honey-coloured Hollington stone. Its architectural style was

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, a Germanic people **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Gothic alphabet, an alphabet used to write the Gothic language ** Gothic ( ...

. It had a frontage of onto New Street and onto Stephenson Place, and was adjacent to

Birmingham New Street railway station Birmingham New Street, also known as New Street station, is the largest and busiest of the Birmingham station group, three main railway stations in Birmingham city centre, England, and a central hub of the Rail transport in Great Britain, Brit ...

. The building was multi-purpose, being home to a commodity exchange, which dealt mainly with iron and steel. It was also an important meeting place for those involved with the iron and steel industry. The Birmingham

Chamber of Commerce A chamber of commerce, or board of trade, is a form of business network. For example, a local organization of businesses whose goal is to further the interests of businesses. Business owners in towns and cities form these local societies to a ...

was based in the building until it moved to new offices 1901. There was a large principal hall and assembly room, both measuring long, wide, and tall. The assembly room was frequently used for public entertainment purposes, such as balls, concerts, and other public entertainments. Other portions of the building were rented as offices. The prominent central tower was high. This was topped by a

turret Turret may refer to: * Turret (architecture), a small tower that projects above the wall of a building * Gun turret, a mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon * Optical microscope#Objective turret (revolver or revolving nose piece), Objective turre ...

, in which there was a clock made by

John Inshaw John Inshaw (1807–1893) was a mechanic and inventor who lived in Aston, now a district of Birmingham, England. Inshaw designed and built machinery for the railway and shipping industries and constructed a steam carriage. He was consulted by Geo ...

, which was moved by electro-magnetic power.

Replacement buildings

It was replaced by a 1960s office and shop development known as the ''Exchange Buildings'', built between 1965-67, and designed by Cotton, Ballard & Blow. This building houses among other things a

HSBC HSBC Holdings plc ( zh, t_hk=滙豐; initialism from its founding member The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation) is a British universal bank and financial services group headquartered in London, England, with historical and business li ...

bank, and a 140 bedroom

Premier Inn Premier Inn Limited, a subsidiary of Whitbread, is a British limited-service hotel chain with operations in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Austria, United Arab Emirates, and Qatar. As of 2025, the company owned and operated over 800 h ...

Hotel.

References

External links

1862 - Birmingham Exchange Buildings
- Archiseek {{DEFAULTSORT:Exchange Birmingham Buildings and structures completed in 1865 Buildings and structures demolished in 1965 Buildings and structures in Birmingham, West Midlands Demolished buildings and structures in the West Midlands (county) History of Birmingham, West Midlands