The Corn Exchange is a trading space and events venue in

Doncaster Doncaster (, ) is a city in South Yorkshire, England. Named after the River Don, it is the administrative centre of the larger City of Doncaster. It is the second largest settlement in South Yorkshire after Sheffield. Doncaster is situated in ...

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and metropolitan county, metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. The county has four council areas which are the cities of City of Doncaster, Doncaster and City of Sh ...

, 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 exchange. Such trade was common in towns ...

, is part of a Grade II* listed complex.

History

The first corn exchange in Doncaster was a structure erected by Onions, Wheelhouse & Co at a cost of £900 and completed in 1844: it was a simple two-bay structure with iron columns supporting some girders and a pitched roof. In the late 1860s, civic leaders decided that the original structure was inadequate and should be replaced with a new structure: the site they selected was at the centre of the market hall in the Market Place which had been built to a "U"-shaped plan. Their intention was to use the new corn exchange to infill, and to project forward from, the "U" of the market hall. The foundation stone for the new corn exchange was laid by the mayor, Arthur J. Smith, on 22 September 1870. It was designed by William Watkins in the

neoclassical style Neoclassical architecture is an architectural style produced by the Neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century in Italy and France. It became one of the most prominent architectural styles in the Western world. The prevailing sty ...

, built in ashlar stone and was officially opened by the mayor, William Cotterill Clark, on 17 April 1873. The design involved a main frontage of five bays facing northeast onto the Market Place. The ground floor was rusticated. The central bay, which projected forward, featured a recessed doorway flanked by pairs of red

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

Doric order The Doric order was one of the three orders of ancient Greek and later Roman architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian. The Doric is most easily recognized by the simple circular capitals at the top of c ...

columns supporting an entablature. On the first floor, there was a

Diocletian window Diocletian windows, also called thermal windows, are large semicircular windows characteristic of the enormous public baths (''thermae'') of Ancient Rome. They have been revived on a limited basis by some classical revivalist architects in more m ...

with an

archivolt An archivolt (or voussure) is an ornamental 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, corresponding to the ...

, surmounted by a sculpture of a female figure and flanked by Doric order columns and

pilaster In classical architecture, a pilaster is an architectural element used to give the appearance of a supporting column and to articulate an extent of wall, with only an ornamental function. It consists of a flat surface raised from the main wal ...

s supporting an entablature and a

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the 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/breast'). ...

. The bays on either side of the central bay featured three round headed openings on each floor, with the central openings on the ground floor containing niches and the other openings containing windows with architraves. These bays were surmounted by

balustraded A baluster is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its con ...

parapets. The end bays, which also projected forward, featured round headed openings containing doorways with fanlights on the ground floor and

oculi An oculus (; ) is a circular opening in the center of a dome or in a wall. Originating in antiquity, it is a feature of Byzantine and Neoclassical architecture. It is also known as an '' œil-de-boeuf'' from the French, or simply a "bull's- ...

with

tracery Tracery is an architectural device by which windows (or screens, panels, and vaults) are divided into sections of various proportions by stone ''bars'' or ''ribs'' of moulding. Most commonly, it refers to the stonework elements that support the ...

and archivolts on the first floor. The end bays were surmounted by parapets. Internally, the principal room was the main hall, which is described by

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked w ...

as "very elaborate", with a three-sided gallery on the first floor. 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. However, the building was also extensively used as an events venue: in the early 20th century, the future

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...

, gave a talk in the corn exchange about his experiences during the

Second Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the South ...

, and, in 1909, the composer, Edward Elgar, conducted the

London Symphony Orchestra The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London. Founded in 1904, the LSO is the oldest of London's symphony orchestras. The LSO was created by a group of players who left Henry Wood's Queen's Hall Orc ...

there. After the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, speakers there included the politicians,

Oswald Mosley Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley, 6th Baronet (16 November 1896 – 3 December 1980) was a British politician during the 1920s and 1930s who rose to fame when, having become disillusioned with mainstream politics, he turned to fascism. He was a member ...

and Aneurin Bevan, and, after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, the corn exchange became a municipal restaurant and dance hall. It was integrated into the main market hall in 1967. Following a major fire in 1994, the floor of the corn exchange was raised and the building re-opened in 1997. The building closed for a major refurbishment, to be carried out at a cost of £5 million to a design by Group Ginger Architects, in October 2022. The work was intended to create studios for artists and pop-up traders.

References

{{reflist Commercial buildings completed in 1873 Buildings and structures in Doncaster Grade II* listed buildings in South Yorkshire Corn exchanges in England

History

See also

References