The Corn Hall is a commercial building in St Nicholas Street,

Diss, Norfolk Diss is a market town, civil parish and Wards and electoral divisions of the United Kingdom, electoral ward in South Norfolk, England; it is near to the boundary with Suffolk. It had a population of 7,572 in 2011. It lies in the valley of the Ri ...

, England. The structure, which is now used as an arts centre, 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

The building was commissioned by the

lord of the manor Lord of the manor is a title that, in Anglo-Saxon England and Norman England, referred to the landholder of a historical rural estate. The titles date to the English Feudalism, feudal (specifically English feudal barony, baronial) system. The ...

, Thomas Lombe Taylor, whose seat was at Starston Place in

Starston Starston is a small village and civil parish in Norfolk, England. It covers an area of and had a population of 321 in 123 households at the 2001 census, the population increasing to 331 at the 2011 Census. The Starston village sign features ...

. He selected a site on the north side of St Nicholas Street. It was designed by a local architect, George Atkins, 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

ashlar Ashlar () is a cut and dressed rock (geology), stone, worked using a chisel to achieve a specific form, typically rectangular in shape. The term can also refer to a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, a ...

stone at a cost of £10,000 and was completed in 1854. The design featured a symmetrical main frontage of three bays facing St Nicholas Street. The central bay featured a

tetrastyle A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cultu ...

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cu ...

formed by four

Ionic order The Ionic order is one of the three canonic classical order, orders of classical architecture, the other two being the Doric order, Doric and the Corinthian order, Corinthian. There are two lesser orders: the Tuscan order, Tuscan (a plainer Doric) ...

columns supporting a

modillion A modillion is an ornate bracket, more horizontal in shape and less imposing than a corbel. They are often seen underneath a Cornice (architecture), cornice which helps to support them. Modillions are more elaborate than dentils (literally transl ...

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 ...

. Behind the portico, a doorway with an

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, ...

and

brackets A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. They come in four main pairs of shapes, as given in the box to the right, which also gives their n ...

supported 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 ...

. The outer bays were decorated by blind windows with

window sill A windowsill (also written window sill or window-sill, and less frequently in British English, cill) is the horizontal structure or surface at the bottom of a window. Window sills serve to structurally support and hold the window in place. The ...

s and brackets supporting pediments. Internally, the principal rooms were the main hall, which was long and wide, and a library containing between 2,000 and 3,000 volumes. The official opening was celebrated by a concert performed by an orchestra of between 80 and 90 local people, with all the money raised being donated to the

Patriotic Fund The Lloyd's Patriotic Fund is a British patriotic fund and charity. The fund issues financial payments and has issued presentation swords and other awards. The fund was founded on 28 July 1803 at Lloyd's Coffee House by a group of Lloyd's of London ...

. The architectural historian,

Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (195 ...

, was impressed by the design, remarking on the "remarkably civilised facade" and commenting that "the effect...

f this F, or f, is the sixth letter of the Latin alphabet and many modern alphabets influenced by it, including the modern English alphabet and the alphabets of all other modern western European languages. Its name in English is ''ef'' (pronounc ...

..is striking". Shortly after it opened, the building also became the venue for the local

petty session Courts of petty session, established from around the 1730s, were local courts consisting of magistrates, held for each petty sessional division (usually based on the county divisions known as hundreds) in England, Wales, and Ireland. The session ...

s. 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. Instead, it became a community events venue hosting dances,

whist Whist is a classic English trick-taking card game which was widely played in the 18th and 19th centuries. Although the rules are simple, there is scope for strategic play. History In 1674, '' The Complete Gamester'' described the game Ru ...

drives and

bridge A bridge is a structure built to Span (engineering), span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or railway) without blocking the path underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, whi ...

drives. The owners of the building, Diss Town Council, transferred the responsibility for the management of the building to the Diss Corn Hall Trust when the trust was formed in July 2009. An extensive programme of refurbishment project, involving the conversion of the building into an arts centre to a design by Hudson Architects, commenced in January 2016. Following the project's completion, which a cost £1.7 million with financial support from the

National Lottery Heritage Fund The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom. History The fund's predecessor bodies were ...

, the new arts centre was opened by the Mayor Mike Barwell on 5 May 2017. The building houses a portrait of benefactor Thomas Lombe Taylor, painted by English portrait artist Sir William Boxall.

References

{{reflist Commercial buildings completed in 1854 Grade II listed buildings in Norfolk Diss Diss, Norfolk

History

See also

References