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

St Albans St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and one of the home counties. It borders Bedfordshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Greater London to the ...

, England. The structure, which is now used to accommodate a pair of shops, is a locally

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

The corn exchange was commissioned to replace an open-sided market hall, in the middle of the Market Place, just to the south of the

Clock Tower Clock towers are a specific type of structure that house a turret clock and have one or more clock faces on the upper exterior walls. Many clock towers are freestanding structures but they can also adjoin or be located on top of another building ...

, which dated back to around 1596. By the mid-19th century it had become dilapidated and the local merchants wanted a new structure. The site council officials selected was on the east side of the Market Place, close to the location of the market's medieval Wheat Cheping. The new building was the subject of a design competition, held in 1854, which was won by James Murray, who later established the firm of Pugin & Murray in London. It was designed in the

Italianate style The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style combined its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Ita ...

"with details partaking of the Romanesque", built by Joseph Briggs in buff brick with stone dressings at a cost of £1,380, and was officially opened by the mayor, John Lewis, on 23 September 1857. The original design involved a symmetrical main frontage of thirteen bays facing onto the Market Place. The end bays contained openings flanked by pairs of Doric order pilasters 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 ...

, 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 round headed

pediment Pediments are a form of gable in classical architecture, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the cornice (an elaborated lintel), or entablature if supported by columns.Summerson, 130 In an ...

s. The other bays contained round headed windows with

architrave In classical architecture, an architrave (; , also called an epistyle; ) is the lintel or beam, typically made of wood or stone, that rests on the capitals of columns. The term can also apply to all sides, including the vertical members, ...

s and keystones. At roof level there was 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 ...

and a central commemorative plaque, which was inscribed with the words "Corn Exchange, Erected 1857, John Lewis Esq Mayor" and was surmounted by a round headed pediment. A serious dispute arose in 1859 when St Albans City Council sought to restrict the opening hours of the corn exchange but merchants simply broke into the building casting police officers aside. The use of corn exchanges declined significantly in the wake of the Great Depression of British Agriculture in the late 19th century. In 1888, Mr Richardson, the Corn Exchange keeper, said the corn market was held every Saturday afternoon. With 16 stall-holders paying per annum each, the number having declined due to the depression in trade. The Corn Exchange building was also let for public meetings. After the market closed the building became a shop, operated by, amongst others,

Home and Colonial Stores Home and Colonial Stores was once one of the United Kingdom's largest retail chains. Its formation of a vast chain of retail stores in the late 1920s is seen as the first step in the development of a UK food retail market dominated by a small numb ...

. During the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

it became the meeting place of the Belgian Refugee Committee and, later in the war, it was used as a National Kitchen. After the war it was converted into five shop units to a very crude design, causing significant damage to the original Italianate frontage. A major programme of refurbishment works to restore the frontage was completed in the mid-1990s. The works included the introduction of a new opening in the central bay as well as the introduction of better fenestration including bi-partite and tri-partite windows flanked by

colonette A colonnette is a small slender column, usually decorative, which supports a Beam (structure), beam or lintel. Colonnettes have also been used to refer to a feature of furnishings such as a dressing table and Grandfather clock, case clock, and eve ...

s supporting

lintel A lintel or lintol is a type of beam (a horizontal structural element) that spans openings such as portals, doors, windows and fireplaces. It can be a decorative architectural element, or a combined ornamented/structural item. In the case ...

s. The building currently accommodates a clothing shop, Reiss and a local jewellery business, Kings Hill Jewellery.

References

External links

{{commons category-inline, Corn Exchange, St Albans Commercial buildings completed in 1857

Buildings and structures in St Albans

History

See also

References

External links