The Corn Exchange is a former chapel, trading facility and military installation at Bank Street (formerly Back Street) in

Tonbridge Tonbridge ( ) is a market town in Kent, England, on the River Medway, north of Royal Tunbridge Wells, south west of Maidstone and south east of London. In the administrative borough of Tonbridge and Malling, it had an estimated populat ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

History

The building was originally commissioned as a chapel for the Independent Congregationalists and was referred to as the "Independent Chapel". It was built in red brick and completed on 19 March 1791. The design involved a main frontage of three bays facing onto Bank Street, which was previously known as Back Street. The central bay featured a small portico formed by four columns supporting an entablature. The outer bays were fenestrated by

mullion A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid supp ...

ed and transomed windows with pointed heads and

hood mould In architecture, a hood mould, hood, label mould (from Latin ''labia'', lip), drip mould or dripstone, is an external moulded projection from a wall over an opening to throw off rainwater, historically often in form of a ''pediment''. This mouldin ...

s. The frontage was surmounted by a

pediment Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds. A pedim ...

with a circular panel containing a

trefoil A trefoil () is a graphic form composed of the outline of three overlapping rings, used in architecture and Christian symbolism, among other areas. The term is also applied to other symbols with a threefold shape. A similar shape with four ring ...

in the tympanum. The building was enlarged in 1847. The Independent Congregationalists moved out to new premises in the High Street in 1876 and the chapel became used as the local Corn Exchange. However, the use of the building as a corn exchange declined significantly in the wake of the

Great Depression of British Agriculture The Great Depression of British Agriculture occurred during the late nineteenth century and is usually dated from 1873 to 1896. Contemporaneous with the global Long Depression, Britain's agricultural depression was caused by the dramatic fall in g ...

in the late 19th century. The building was then converted to become the headquarters of the 4th Battalion, The

Queen's Own (Royal West Kent Regiment) The Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army based in the county of Kent in existence from 1881 to 1961. The regiment was created on 1 July 1881 as part of the Childers Reforms, originally as the Queen' ...

in 1910. It also became the headquarters of the Kent Cyclist Battalion at this time. The 4th Battalion was mobilised at the drill hall in August 1914 before being deployed to

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. The battalion merged with the 5th Battalion to form the 4th/5th Battalion in 1947. Following the cut-backs in 1967, the presence at the drill hall was reduced to a single company, E Company, 5th (Volunteer) Battalion, The

Queen's Regiment The Queen's Regiment (QUEENS) was an infantry regiment of the British Army formed in 1966 through the amalgamation of the four regiments of the Home Counties Brigade. Then, until 1971 the regiment remained one of the largest regiments in the ar ...

. The drill hall was subsequently decommissioned and converted for commercial use.

References

{{reflist Buildings and structures in Kent Drill halls in England Tonbridge

History

See also

References