Leicester Corn Exchange

The first building on the site, known as The Gainsborough, which was built as a prison and law court with shops and dungeons below, was completed in 1509. It was replaced by another building, known as the New Gainsborough, which was built as a corn exchange, in 1748.{{cite web |url=http://www.crosbyheritage.co.uk/location/leicester/corn-exchange/ |title=Corn Exchange (Leicester)|work=Colin Crosby Heritage Tours|accessdate=14 April 2023}}{{cite news |last1=Ashe |first1=Isaac |title=The fascinating history behind Leicester city centre's two JD Wetherspoon pubs |url=https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/leicester-news/fascinating-history-behind-leicester-city-3893780 |access-date=14 April 2023 |work=Leicestershire Live |publisher=Reach PLC |date=29 February 2020}} The first floor of the building was used for magistrates' court hearings.{{cite news|url=http://kjn1961.epizy.com/james%20Booth.pdf?i=1 |title= Leicester Exchange (Magistrates)|date=19 December 1840|newspaper=Leicester Chronicle| access-date=14 April 2023}} The current building was originally commissioned as a single-storey market trading hall. It was designed by William Flint and completed in 1851. However, it was then extended by the addition of an extra floor to accommodate magistrates' court hearings, to a design by Frederick Webster Ordish in the neoclassical style, in brick with a stucco finish, in 1855.

The design involved a symmetrical main frontage of seven bays facing onto the Market Place. It featured a prominent stone archway supporting a double-flight staircase providing access to a doorway on the first floor in the piano nobile-style. The first floor doorway was surmounted by a segmental pediment and a cartouche. The wings were fenestrated by tall windows with window sills, architraves and alternating segmental and triangular pediments on the ground floor, and by square-shaped windows on the first floor. At roof level, there was a modillioned cornice. A clock turret was also added, housing a clock by E. T. Loseby of Leicester{{cite journal |last1=Daniell |first1=J. A. |title=The Making of Clocks and Watches in Leicestershire and Rutland |journal=Transactions of the Leicestershire Archaeological Society |date=1951 |volume=27 |pages=41-42 |url=https://www.le.ac.uk/lahs/downloads/1951/1951%20(27)%2030-65%20Daniell.pdf |access-date=12 April 2023}} and topped by a weather vane in the shape of a wyvern. The architectural historian, Nikolaus Pevsner, described the staircase as "spectacular",{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=UYlQ6DJdJ4AC&pg=PA223 |title= Leicestershire and Rutland (Buildings of England Series)|first1=Nikolaus|last1=Pevsner |first2=Elizabeth|last2=Williamson|first3=Geoffrey|last3=Brandwood |year=1985|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn= 978-0300096187|page=223}} although Ordish had his doubts about it and later disowned it.{{Cite news|date=25 September 1858|title=Opening of Messrs. Evans and Stafford's Warehouses|work=Leicester Guardian|url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0002149/18580925/095/0008|access-date=21 November 2021}}

A statue of the Lord Lieutenant of Leicestershire, John Manners, 5th Duke of Rutland, sculpted by Edward Davis, was unveiled outside the building by Sir Frederick Gustavus Fowke, 1st Baronet on 28 April 1852.{{Cite web|url= https://statues.vanderkrogt.net/object.php?record=gbem007 |title= John Henry Manners, 5th Duke of Rutland|publisher=Vanderkrogt| access-date=14 April 2023}}{{NHLE|desc=Statue of the Duke of Rutland|num= 1073991| access-date=14 April 2023}}{{cite news|url= https://leicesterchronicle.co.uk/leicester-statues-john-manners |title= The History of Leicester’s Statues: John Henry Manners|newspaper=Leicester Chronicle| access-date=14 April 2023}}

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.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=obn5AQAAQBAJ|first=T. W. |last=Fletcher|title= 'The Great Depression of English Agriculture 1873-1896' in British Agriculture 1875-1914 |location=London|publisher= Methuen|year= 1973|isbn=978-1136581182|page= 31}} However, in the early 20th century, the building served as a focal point for civic celebrations and, in June 1911, a large crown attended celebrations to mark the Coronation of George V and Mary.{{cite news|url= https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/history/leicesters-corn-exchange-focal-point-2096976 |title= When Leicester's Corn Exchange was focal point for city celebrations|newspaper=Leicester Mercury|date=11 October 2018| access-date=14 April 2023}} Then, in August 1914, at the start of the First World War, the building was the venue for a lively debate involving the future Prime Minister, Ramsay MacDonald, who spoke on the importance of democracy and overcoming militarism.{{cite web|url=https://www.le.ac.uk/lahs/downloads/Historian/2018%20(54)%20Leicestershire%20Historian.pdf |title=When 'Germany Called the Tune': Music, Liberalism and the Call to War |first=Mark |last=Gamble |page=17|publisher=Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society |work=Leicestershire Historian|year=2018}}

After a long period when the building was vacant and deteriorating, it was acquired by Wetherspoons and, after a major refurbishment, it re-opened as a public house in July 2000.{{cite news|url= https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/whats-on/whats-on-news/gallery/leicester-wetherspoon-pub-corn-exchange-7618843 |title= Leicester Wetherspoon pub The Corn Exchange re-opens after huge refurbishment|date=23 September 2022|newspaper=Leicester Mercury| access-date=14 April 2023}}

• Grade II* listed buildings in Leicester
• Corn exchanges in England

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Category:Buildings and structures in Leicester

Category:Grade II* listed buildings in Leicestershire

Category:Pubs in Leicestershire

Category:Corn exchanges in England