The Corn Exchange is a commercial building in the Market Place,

Dereham Dereham (), also known historically as East Dereham, is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Breckland District of the England, English county of Norfolk. It is situated on the A47 road, about west of the city of Norwich ...

Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...

, England. The structure, which is used as a cinema, 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 early 1850s, a group of local businessmen decided to form a private company, known as the "East Dereham Corn Exchange Company", to finance and commission a purpose-built

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 exchanges. Such trade was common in towns ...

for the town. The investors included

Thomas Coke, 2nd Earl of Leicester Thomas William Coke, 2nd Earl of Leicester (26 December 1822 – 24 January 1909), known as Viscount Coke from 1837 to 1842, was a British peerage, British peer. Background Leicester was the son of Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester (seventh ...

, whose seat was a

Holkham Hall Holkham Hall ( or ) is an 18th-century English country house, country house near the village of Holkham, Norfolk, England, constructed in the Neo-Palladian style for Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester (fifth creation), Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of ...

, and who took a personal interest in the project. The site selected, on the west side of the Market Place, had been occupied by The Shambles, a collection of dilapidated market stalls. The building was designed by Mathias Goggs of

Swaffham Swaffham () is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Breckland District and England, English county of Norfolk. It is situated east of King's Lynn and west of Norwich. The civil parish has an area of and in the U ...

in the

neoclassical style Neoclassicism, also spelled Neo-classicism, emerged as a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassici ...

, built in red brick with a

stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and ...

finish and was opened in February 1857. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage of five bays facing onto the Market Place. The bays were separated by six full-height

Corinthian order The Corinthian order (, ''Korinthiakós rythmós''; ) is the last developed and most ornate of the three principal classical orders of Ancient Greek architecture and Ancient Roman architecture, Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric or ...

columns 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 ...

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 ...

. The central section of three bays, which featured an elevated parapet, formed a triumphal arch. A statue of Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester was installed on top of the raised parapet on 6 September 1858. After a public meeting in the building, in June 1859, at which 30 men enlisted for the newly formed Dereham Volunteer Rifle Corps, the building also served as the local drill hall. It appears that the building did not meet with universal acclaim as, in February 1866, an application was made to the court to have it demolished. The

Vice-Chancellor A vice-chancellor (commonly called a VC) serves as the chief executive of a university in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia, Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Kenya, other Commonwealth of Nati ...

ruled that it should not be pulled down as it was "a great public improvement". 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. The glass roof on the building was badly damaged in a

zeppelin A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship named after the German inventor Ferdinand von Zeppelin () who pioneered rigid airship development at the beginning of the 20th century. Zeppelin's notions were first formulated in 1874Eckener 1938, pp. 155� ...

raid in September 1915. The building was converted for use as a cinema in 1924 and re-branded as the Exchange Theatre after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. The statue of the Earl of Leicester on the top of the parapet was hit by a bolt of lightning in June 1950; the head was shattered and the rest of the statue was subsequently demolished. The building was remodelled to create a dance floor in the stalls area in 1961. After a change of ownership in 1975, it started operating as a bingo hall and social club, as well as a cinema. The building was later remodelled again to create a three-screen cinema and re-branded as the Orion Cinema.

References

{{reflist Commercial buildings completed in 1857 Dereham Grade II listed buildings in Norfolk

History

See also

References