The London Coal Exchange was situated on the north side of
Thames Street in the
City of London
The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London fr ...
, nearly opposite to
Old Billingsgate Market
Old Billingsgate Market is the name given to what is now a hospitality and events venue in the City of London, based in the Victorian architecture, Victorian building that was originally Billingsgate Fish Market, the world's largest fish market ...
, occupying three different structures from 1770 to 1962. The original coal exchange opened in 1770. A second building from 1805 was replaced by a new purpose-built structure constructed from 1847 to 1849, and opened by
Prince Albert
Prince Albert most commonly refers to:
*Albert, Prince Consort (1819–1861), consort of Queen Victoria
*Albert II, Prince of Monaco (born 1958), present head of state of Monaco
Prince Albert may also refer to:
Royalty
* Albert I of Belgium ...
on 30 October 1849. This third London coal exchange was one of the first substantial buildings constructed from
cast iron
Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impuriti ...
, built several years before the hall at the
Great Exhibition
The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, also known as the Great Exhibition or the Crystal Palace Exhibition (in reference to the temporary The Crystal Palace, structure in which it was held), was an International Exhib ...
. It was demolished in 1962 to allow widening of what is now
Lower Thames Street
Thames Street, divided into Lower and Upper Thames Street, is a road in the City of London, the historic and financial centre of London. It forms part of the busy A3211 route (prior to being rebuilt as a major thoroughfare in the late 1960s, it ...
despite a campaign by the
Victorian Society to save the building. Cast iron decorations from the 1849 Coal Exchange building were selected as the model for the
dragon boundary mark
The dragon boundary marks are cast iron statues of dragons (sometimes mistaken for griffins) on metal or stone plinths that mark the boundaries of the City of London. The dragons are painted silver, with details of their wings and tongue picke ...
for the main entrances to the City of London.
Background
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen.
Coal is formed when dea ...
had been imported to London by sea since at least medieval times. A coal exchange was established in 1770 on Thames Street in the City of London, near the site of
Smart's Quay and close to Billingsgate Market; the main trades at Billingsgate Dock were fish and coal. The market was established by the main
coal merchants as a private body to regulate the trade of coal in the capital, and was controlled by private coal merchants until the old Coal Exchange was bought by the
Corporation of London
The City of London Corporation, officially and legally the Mayor and Commonalty and Citizens of the City of London, is the municipal governing body of the City of London, the historic centre of London and the location of much of the United King ...
in 1807. A new building had been built in 1805, with a recessed classical portico supported by small
Doric Doric may refer to:
* Doric, of or relating to the Dorians of ancient Greece
** Doric Greek, the dialects of the Dorians
* Doric order, a style of ancient Greek architecture
* Doric mode, a synonym of Dorian mode
* Doric dialect (Scotland)
* Doric ...
pillars and triangular pediment above, with stone steps leading to a quadrangle within. Under the control of the City Corporation, the Coal Exchange became a free and open market, regulated by various Acts of Parliament, including Acts in 1831, 1838 and 1845.
At this period, London was heated almost entirely by coal. By 1848, approximately 3.5 million tons of coal was being transported each year from the coalfields in Northumberland and Durham to London, with over 12,000 shiploads carried on nearly 3,000 vessels. The coal trade was also an important source of tax revenue for the city. The duty on coal funded Wren's rebuilding of more than
fifty city churches and
St Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in London and is the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London. It is on Ludgate Hill at the highest point of the City of London and is a Grad ...
after the
Great Fire of London
The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through central London from Sunday 2 September to Thursday 6 September 1666, gutting the medieval City of London inside the old Roman city wall, while also extending past the ...
in 1666, and also funded for other building works in the metropolis, such as the
Thames Embankment.
Historically, coal taxes (
metage, payable on each
chaldron of 35
bushels or the
imperial ton) were charged by the City based on volume measurements. A coal duty of 4 pence was confirmed by
James I James I may refer to:
People
*James I of Aragon (1208–1276)
*James I of Sicily or James II of Aragon (1267–1327)
*James I, Count of La Marche (1319–1362), Count of Ponthieu
*James I, Count of Urgell (1321–1347)
*James I of Cyprus (1334–13 ...
, with a duty of 8 pence more added under
William III William III or William the Third may refer to:
Kings
* William III of Sicily (c. 1186–c. 1198)
* William III of England and Ireland or William III of Orange or William II of Scotland (1650–1702)
* William III of the Netherlands and Luxembourg ...
and
Mary II
Mary II (30 April 166228 December 1694) was Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland, co-reigning with her husband, William III & II, from 1689 until her death in 1694.
Mary was the eldest daughter of James, Duke of York, and his first wife ...
, and an additional 1 pence added to fund the construction of the new Coal Exchange. From 1831, the City of London charged a duty of 13 pence per imperial ton before coal could be unshipped, and a certificate was sent to the Coal Exchange stating the date of shipment, name and owner of the ship, quantity of coal, where it was mined, and the price paid. The coal trade was dominated by sea transport until 1845, but railway transportation increased in importance in the 1850s and 1860s, with similar quantities carried on the rails, and the coal duty was extended to coal brought within 20 miles of London by any means in 1862. By 1875, five million tons of coal were being brought to London each year by rail and three million tons by sea.
Thousands of workmen of various grades were employed to move the coal from the ships to a customer's coal cellar, with "coal-whippers" hauling baskets of coal out of the hold of a collier with a rope and pulley system into a coal merchant's
lighter, and then taken onshore by "coal-backers". The coal was sorted by "coal-sifter" and put into coal-sacks by a "coal-filler", then transported by "coal-waggoners" and delivered by a "coal-trimmer". The work was heavy manual labour, but the trade was essential and workers were reasonably well paid for the period.
In the Coal Exchange, coal factors acted as agents between sellers and buyers. Factors agreed with coal sellers how much coal is available on a particular day, based on the ships available and the market price, with the market meeting on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 12 noon to 2:30 pm. All sales were agreed privately, with no public auction, and factors would take a 0.5% commission.
By 1845, a petition was made to build a new exchange, and the City Clerk of Works,
James Bunstone Bunning
James Bunstone Bunning (6 October 1802 – 2 November 1863) was an English architect. He held the post of architect to the City of London from 1843 until his death, and is probably best remembered for his design for the Coal Exchange.
Life
...
, produced a design. Construction started in December 1847 and the new Coal Exchange was formally opened by
Prince Albert
Prince Albert most commonly refers to:
*Albert, Prince Consort (1819–1861), consort of Queen Victoria
*Albert II, Prince of Monaco (born 1958), present head of state of Monaco
Prince Albert may also refer to:
Royalty
* Albert I of Belgium ...
on 30 October 1849.
The Lord Mayor and City MP,
James Duke, was made a baronet in honour of the occasion.
Description
![Microcosm of London Plate 017 - The Coal Exchange (tone)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3a/Microcosm_of_London_Plate_017_-_The_Coal_Exchange_%28tone%29.jpg)
The new Coal Exchange was built on the north side of
Thames Street, on the east side of its junction with
St. Mary-at-Hill, with four floors.
[ A ]Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...
hypocaust
A hypocaust ( la, hypocaustum) is a system of central heating in a building that produces and circulates hot air below the floor of a room, and may also warm the walls with a series of pipes through which the hot air passes. This air can warm th ...
was found during the excavation of the building's foundations, part of the Roman house at Billingsgate
Billingsgate Roman House and Baths is an archaeological site in Londinium (Roman London). The best preserved parts of the house are a bath with hypocausts. The ruins were discovered in 1848 while the Coal Exchange was built on the site. The remain ...
, and preserved in its basement and is now a scheduled monument
In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change.
The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage and d ...
.
The south and west fronts, facing the streets, were built in Italianate style from Portland stone
Portland stone is a limestone from the Tithonian stage of the Jurassic period quarried on the Isle of Portland, Dorset. The quarries are cut in beds of white-grey limestone separated by chert beds. It has been used extensively as a building sto ...
, with four floors, measuring wide and high. At the southwest corner was an unusual high semi-circular portico with Doric Doric may refer to:
* Doric, of or relating to the Dorians of ancient Greece
** Doric Greek, the dialects of the Dorians
* Doric order, a style of ancient Greek architecture
* Doric mode, a synonym of Dorian mode
* Doric dialect (Scotland)
* Doric ...
columns and 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 ...
, surmounted by a tower of Portland stone
Portland stone is a limestone from the Tithonian stage of the Jurassic period quarried on the Isle of Portland, Dorset. The quarries are cut in beds of white-grey limestone separated by chert beds. It has been used extensively as a building sto ...
high, with a conical roof topped by a gilt ball. Within the tower was a staircase providing access to the upper floors. The ground floor portico provided access to an entrance vestibule leading to a large central circular vaulted hall. The central rotunda was in diameter, with a wooden floor inlaid with a large mariner's compass. The rotunda was covered by a glazed cast iron dome with its centre above the ground, held up by 8 cast iron piers, supported by 32 ribs 42 ft 6in long.[
The dome design 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 dome was decorated with "Raphael
Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael (; or ; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. List of works by Raphael, His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of ...
esque" encaustic panels by Frederick Sang on a coal-related theme, depicting fossils of ferns, palms and other plants, and images of collieries and mining operations, and views of North Shields, Sunderland, Newcastle upon Tyne and Durham together, with cast iron decorative features. The piers also supported three tiers of cast iron galleries which opened on to offices around the exterior of the building which were occupied by coal factors and other agents and merchants connected with the coal trade.
Demolition
The building suffered some damage in the Second World War, and it ceased to be used as a coal exchange after the war when the coal industry was nationalised. It was then used as offices, but the City of London did not proceed with plans to refurbish the building in the 1950s because its demolition had been suggested to allow widening of the road from Blackfriars Blackfriars, derived from Black Friars, a common name for the Dominican Order of friars, may refer to:
England
* Blackfriars, Bristol, a former priory in Bristol
* Blackfriars, Canterbury, a former monastery in Kent
* Blackfriars, Gloucester, a f ...
to the East End
The East End of London, often referred to within the London area simply as the East End, is the historic core of wider East London, east of the Roman and medieval walls of the City of London and north of the River Thames. It does not have uni ...
, and it became progressively more dilapidated. Nonetheless, in the 1950s, Professor Richard Hitchcock
Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'strong ...
described it as "the prime city monument of the early Victorian period". In September 1956, John Betjeman
Sir John Betjeman (; 28 August 190619 May 1984) was an English poet, writer, and broadcaster. He was Poet Laureate from 1972 until his death. He was a founding member of The Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architecture, ...
(a founding member of the Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architecture
Victorian architecture is a series of architectural revival styles in the mid-to-late 19th century. ''Victorian'' refers to the reign of Queen Victoria (1837–1901), called the Victorian era, during which period the styles known as Victorian we ...
) gave a speech to the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings in the rotunda of the Coal Exchange to argue for its preservation. It became a Grade 2 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 ...
in 1958. A letter published in ''The Times'' and signed by Walter Gropius, Sigfried Giedion
Sigfried Giedion (sometimes misspelled Siegfried Giedion; 14 April 1888, Prague – 10 April 1968, Zürich) was a Bohemian-born Swiss historian and critic of architecture. His ideas and books, ''Space, Time and Architecture'', and ''Mechaniza ...
, Josep Lluís Sert
Josep Lluís Sert i López (; 1 July 190215 March 1983) was a Spanish architect and city planner.
Biography
Born in Barcelona, Catalonia, Sert showed keen interest in the works of his uncle, the painter Josep Maria Sert, and of Gaudí. He s ...
and Eduard Sekler
Eduard Franz Sekler (30 September 1920 – 1 May 2017) was an architectural historian and Osgood Hooker Professor of Visual Art Emeritus and professor of architecture emeritus at Harvard University.
Biography
A native of Vienna, Eduard Sekler earn ...
described the Coal Exchange as "a landmark in the history of early iron construction".
Various alternatives were proposed. The Georgian Group and the Victorian Society both favoured preservation of the Coal Exchange, even if that meant that the "very dull, plain and ordinary" rear parts of the nearby Grade-1 listed
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 ...
Custom House
A custom house or customs house was traditionally a building housing the offices for a jurisdictional government whose officials oversaw the functions associated with importing and exporting goods into and out of a country, such as collecting c ...
(then the headquarters of HM Customs & Excise
HM Customs and Excise (properly known as Her Majesty's Customs and Excise at the time of its dissolution) was a department of the British Government formed in 1909 by the merger of HM Customs and HM Excise; its primary responsibility was th ...
) were removed. Others suggested a scheme in which a walkway would be added in arches under the Coal Exchange. There was also a suggestion that the dome could become part of the new Royal School of Music
The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is the oldest conservatoire in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the first Duke of ...
in the Barbican
Barbican is a type of fortified building.
Barbican may also refer to:
* Barbican (drink), a brand of malt beverage in Saudi Arabia and the UAE
* Barbican Estate
The Barbican Estate, or Barbican, is a residential complex of around 2,000 fl ...
, or shipped to Australia to become part of the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, but funds were not available.
MP Tom Driberg
Thomas Edward Neil Driberg, Baron Bradwell (22 May 1905 – 12 August 1976) was a British journalist, politician, High Anglican churchman and possible Soviet spy, who served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1942 to 1955, and again from 195 ...
made a speech in an adjournment debate in February 1961, quoting a statement by Sir Mortimer Wheeler
Sir Robert Eric Mortimer Wheeler CH CIE MC TD (10 September 1890 – 22 July 1976) was a British archaeologist and officer in the British Army. Over the course of his career, he served as Director of both the National Museum of Wales an ...
published in ''The Times'' the previous day, saying that " Professor Pevsner has placed the threatened London Coal Exchange among the twelve irreplaceable buildings of 19th century England ... It expresses an era of urban revolution as no other surviving building is capable of doing ... The Coal Exchange is a national monument in the fullest sense of the phrase, and its destruction would be unforgivable."
The Corporation was uncooperative, and declined to allow any respite. One member remarked that "We cannot spend time on the preservation of a Victorian building".
Despite campaigns and protests, it was demolished in November 1962 to make way for a "vital" widening of Lower Thames Street. The demolition of the Coal Exchange was described by author Hermione Hobhouse
Mary Hermione Hobhouse (2 February 1934 – 17 October 2014) was a British architectural historian and prominent preservation campaigner.
Family and early life
Hobhouse was born on 2 February 1934 to Sir Arthur Hobhouse and Konradin Huth Ja ...
as "one of the great conservationist horror stories" and its loss has been compared to the demolition of the Adelphi in 1936 and of Euston Arch shortly before, in 1961. The cleared site was then left empty for 10 years while other land was acquired for the road widening scheme.
Cast iron dragons which were mounted on the eaves parapet above the entrance to the Coal Exchange were preserved and were erected as dragon boundary mark
The dragon boundary marks are cast iron statues of dragons (sometimes mistaken for griffins) on metal or stone plinths that mark the boundaries of the City of London. The dragons are painted silver, with details of their wings and tongue picke ...
s in October 1963 in Temple Gardens on Victoria Embankment
Victoria Embankment is part of the Thames Embankment, a road and river-walk along the north bank of the River Thames in London. It runs from the Palace of Westminster to Blackfriars Bridge in the City of London, and acts as a major thoroughfare ...
. Half-sized replicas were erected at the other main entrances to the City, in preference to the more fierce dragon at Temple Bar.
See also
*Coal-tax post
Coal-tax posts are boundary marker posts found in southern England. They were erected in the 1860s and form an irregular loop between 12 and 18 miles from London to mark the points where taxes on coal were due to the Corporation of London. There ...
References
Sources
*
London, 1808-1870: The Infernal Wen
Francis Henry Wollaston Sheppard, pp. 192–195
Public sculpture of the city of London
Philip Ward-Jackson, pp. 422–423
Hand-book of London: past and present
Peter Cunningham, pp. 130–131
Politics and Preservation: A Policy History of the Built Heritage 1882-1996
John Delafons, pp. 83–84
Hansard, House of Commons debates
9 February 1961, vol 634 cc783-94
Knight's cyclopædia of London
1851 edited by Charles Knight, pp. 492–497
Lower Thames Street
Old and New London: Volume 2 (1878), pp. 41–60
victorianlondon.org
Courtauld Institute
Images of the Coal Exchange
from the City of London archive
Image of the new Coal Exchange from the River Thames, behind Billingsgate Market and the Customs House
The opening of the new Coal Exchange by Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha
National Portrait Gallery, engraving published 1851
Hansard, House of Commons debates
22 May 1889, vol 336 cc701-67 (description of the coal duties in London)
A sense of history
RIBAjournal.com, 2011
{{Authority control
Buildings and structures demolished in 1962
Coal industry
Commercial buildings completed in 1805
Commercial buildings completed in 1849
Commodity exchanges in the United Kingdom
Defunct financial services companies of the United Kingdom
Demolished buildings and structures in London
Financial services companies of the United Kingdom
Former buildings and structures in the City of London
1805 establishments in England
1849 establishments in England