page_title: Coal Exchange
section_title: Construction and early history
hierarchical_section_title: Coal Exchange / History / Construction and early history
caption_attribution_description: General Strike (UK), Cardiff Docks, Cardiff, Wales
context_page_description: The Coal Exchange is a historic building in Cardiff, Wales. It is designed in Renaissance Revival style. Built in 1888 as the Coal and Shipping Exchange to be used as a market floor and office building for trading in coal in Cardiff, it later became a hub of the global coal trade. It is situated in Mount Stuart Square in Butetown, and was for many years the hub of the city's prosperous shipping industry.
  It later became a music venue, with offices remaining in use in the West Wing, before being closed indefinitely in 2013 due to building safety issues. Following a series of proposals to demolish the building, Cardiff Council purchased the Coal Exchange. In 2016 the property was sold to the Liverpool-based hospitality company Signature Living, which began a programme of restoration and conversion of the building into a hotel. The first phase of this renovation was completed with the opening of the first thirty rooms in April 2017, with further rooms added as renovations continued. As of March 2019, renovations were still ongoing to the rear areas of the building, over 90 rooms had been completed, and the hotel restaurant had opened.
context_section_description: Before the Coal Exchange was built in Mount Stuart Square, the area was a residential square with a central garden. It was taken over by commerce as the city grew in prosperity. Built to provide a dedicated location for merchants and traders to sell coal, it followed construction of buildings of a similar function in London, Liverpool and Manchester. Prior to its construction, coal merchants used to chalk up the changing prices of coal on slates outside their offices or struck deals in the local public houses. It was built and opened in stages, the central trading hall and east block completed first. The trading hall was a large central space around which suites of offices were located.  The London and Provincial Banking Company occupied the majority of the north side.
  As Cardiff became the biggest coal port in the world, the building was constructed between 1884 and 1888 by Edwin Seward as a base from which to conduct trade negotiations regarding the coal mines of the South Wales Valleys – most of which was shipped to Cardiff for distribution.
  The building played an important role in the industrial Cardiff of the 19th century.  Paired Corinthian columns, an oak balcony, and rich wood panelling adorn the trading hall, which was reconstructed by Edwin Seward in 1911.
  Following its opening, coal owners, ship owners and their agents met daily on the floor of the trading hall where agreements were made by word of mouth and telephone. During the peak trading hour of midday to one o'clock, the floor might have as many as 200 men gesticulating and shouting. It was estimated that up to 10,000 people would pass in and out of the building each day. At one time the price of the world's coal was determined here. It was at the Coal Exchange that the first ever £1,000,000 deal was agreed in 1904. The building interior was lavishly refurbished in 1912 by Edwin Seward, and reopened as the ‘New Exchange Building’. In 1915, an extension was added to the southern section, connected to the trading hall.
caption: Coal ships tied up at Cardiff Docks in the 1910s
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