The Corn Exchange is a former commercial building in

Preston, Lancashire Preston () is a city on the north bank of the River Ribble in Lancashire, England. The city is the administrative centre of the county of Lancashire and the wider City of Preston, Lancashire, City of Preston local government district. Preston ...

, England, 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 ...

and later used for 90 years as an assembly room and auditorium known as the Public Hall. Much of the structure was demolished in the late 1980s, but the main entrance building survives as a public house, and is a

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 I ...

History

The building was commissioned by the mayor, Nicholas Grimshaw, on behalf of Preston Corporation as a corn exchange for the town in 1822. It was designed by William Corey in the

Georgian style Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1714 and 1830. It is named after the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover— George I, George II, Ge ...

, built in red brick with stone dressings at a cost of £11,000, and was completed in 1824. It was located adjacent to the terminus of the

Lancaster Canal The Lancaster Canal is a canal in North West England, originally planned to run from Westhoughton in Lancashire to Kendal in south Cumbria (historically in Westmorland). The section around the crossing of the River Ribble was never completed ...

which was used to transport grains bought and sold at the exchange. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage of nine bays facing onto Lune Street. The central section of three bays, which was slightly projected forward, featured a doorway flanked by a pair of

Tuscan order The Tuscan order (Latin ''Ordo Tuscanicus'' or ''Ordo Tuscanus'', with the meaning of Etruscan order) is one of the two classical orders developed by the Romans, the other being the composite order. It is influenced by the Doric order, but with u ...

columns supporting an

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 ...

. Above the doorway there was a stone plaque commemorating of commissioning of the building. The bays in the outer sections contained round headed openings which were protected by

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 impu ...

screens made by

Rothwell, Hick and Rothwell Rothwell, Hick and Rothwell was an engineering company in Bolton, England. Set up in 1822, the partners became interested in the production of steam locomotives after the Rainhill Trials. The company's first engine was ''Union'', a vertical bo ...

. The other two bays on the ground floor in the central section and all the windows on the first floor were fenestrated by

sash window A sash window or hung sash window is made of one or more movable panels, or "sashes". The individual sashes are traditionally paned windows, but can now contain an individual sheet (or sheets, in the case of double glazing) of glass. History ...

s. At roof level, there was a

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...

and a central

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 plaque carved with the borough

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in it ...

in the tympanum. There was also a central

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, most often dome-like, tall structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome. The word derives, via Italian, fr ...

with louvres, a front-facing clock and a

weather vane A wind vane, weather vane, or weathercock is an instrument used for showing the direction of the wind. It is typically used as an architectural ornament to the highest point of a building. The word ''vane'' comes from the Old English word , ...

. Internally, the building was laid out as a series of rooms round an open courtyard. On 13 August 1842, a group of cotton workers demonstrated against the poor conditions in the town's mills during the

Preston Strike of 1842 The Preston Strike and Lune Street Riot, which took place in Preston, in Lancashire, England over 12 and 13 August 1842, were part of the 1842 General Strike or ‘Plug Plot Riots’. These strikes and disturbances were prompted by depression ...

. The then mayor, Samuel Horrocks, read the

Riot Act The Riot Act (1 Geo.1 St.2 c.5), sometimes called the Riot Act 1714 or the Riot Act 1715, was an act of the Parliament of Great Britain which authorised local authorities to declare any group of 12 or more people to be unlawfully assembled and ...

and a detachment from the

72nd Regiment, Duke of Albany's Own Highlanders The 72nd Highlanders was a British Army Scottish regiment, Highland Infantry Regiment of the Line. Raised in 1778, it was originally numbered 78th, before being redesignated the 72nd in 1786. Under the Childers Reforms it amalgamated with the 78 ...

corralled the demonstrators in front of the Corn Exchange. Strikers threw stones at the soldiers and at the police. In response, shots were fired and four of the demonstrators were killed and three others were injured. The courtyard was covered over with a glass roof to a design by Philip Park in 1853. 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. In this context, the then mayor, Edmund Birley, arranged for the building to be converted into a public hall capable of accommodating 3,300 people, to a design by Benjamin Sykes, in 1882. An additional plaque was fixed above the doorway to commemorate the change of use. The Public Hall became a popular concert venue in the 1960s. The

rock band A rock band or pop band is a small musical ensemble that performs rock music, pop music, or a related genre. A four-piece band is the most common configuration in rock and pop music. In the early years, the configuration was typically two gui ...

The Beatles The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the developm ...

, performed there in October 1962 and, again, in September 1963, as did the rock band,

Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin were an English rock band formed in London in 1968. The group comprised vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham. With a heavy, guitar-driven sound, they are c ...

, in November 1971, and the singer-songwriter,

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...

, in June 1972. The Public Hall closed in March 1973, replaced by a new Guild Hall on a different site. The local council intended to demolish it to make way for a proposed extension of the Ringway town centre bypass, whose construction a few years earlier had resulted in the creation of a

gyratory system A roundabout is a type of circular intersection or junction in which road traffic is permitted to flow in one direction around a central island, and priority is typically given to traffic already in the junction.''The New Shorter Oxford Eng ...

around the hall. However, demolition was blocked when listed building status was granted on 21 March 1973, and it was not until 1986 that consent was granted for most of the original structure behind the façade to be demolished. A commemorative sculpture designed by Gordon Young, which was intended to depict the four cotton workers being shot, was unveiled in front of the building, on the 150th anniversary of the riot, in August 1992. The structure behind the facade was rebuilt and then re-opened as a public house in 1993. Since then, it has traded variously as "The Corn Exchange", "The Flax and Firkin", "The Assembly" and "1842".

References

{{City of Preston buildings Commercial buildings completed in 1824 Grade II listed pubs in Lancashire

Preston Preston is a place name, surname and given name that may refer to: Places England *Preston, Lancashire, an urban settlement **The City of Preston, Lancashire, a borough and non-metropolitan district which contains the settlement **County Boro ...

Buildings and structures in Preston

History

See also

References