page_title: Corn exchanges in England
section_title: Oxfordshire
hierarchical_section_title: Corn exchanges in England / Corn exchanges listed by Ceremonial Counties of England / Oxfordshire
caption_attribution_description: English: Part of the Market Square, Banbury, Oxfordshire. The façade of the former Corn Exchange (centre) has been preserved as an entrance to the Castle Quay shopping centre.
context_page_description: In England, corn exchanges are distinct buildings which were originally created as a venue for corn merchants to meet and arrange pricing with farmers for the sale of wheat, barley and other corn crops. The word "corn" in British English denotes all cereal grains, such as wheat and barley. With the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846, a large number of corn exchanges were built, particularly in the corn-growing areas of Eastern England. However, with the fall in price of English corn as a result of cheap imports, corn exchanges virtually ceased to be built after the 1870s. Increasingly they were put to other uses, particularly as meeting and concert halls. Many found a new lease of life in the early 20th century as cinemas, Following the Second World War, many could not be maintained and they were demolished. In the 1970s their architectural importance came to be appreciated, and most of the surviving examples are listed buildings. Most of the surviving corn exchanges have now been restored, and many have become arts centres, theatres or concert halls.
context_section_description: Banbury. Banbury had two corn exchanges. Both opened on the same day 3 September 1857, when they were recorded in the national press as 'utterly unfit for business'. There was considerable (and notorious) rivalry between the two exchanges, which were respectively. promoted by the Banbury Corn Exchange Co. Ltd., and the Central Corn Exchange for Banbury Co. Ltd.,
  The impressive facade to the Cornhill Corn Exchange was designed by W. Hill of Leeds and built by Kimberley of Banbury, with a separate contract with Thorpe and Ponder for stone carving. The classical facade is entered through a portico formed of a giant order of four sets of coupled Corinthian pilasters beneath a heavy entablature and pediment. This was originally surmounted by a standing figure of Ceres. The facade now forms the entrance to a shopping mall.
  The Central Corn Exchange was also built in 1857, though the front to the Market Place is later than the main hall. The hall is of brick, with appropriate decoration in pressed brick, the detail loosely derived from 17th-century France. The building has been attributed to James Murray of Coventry.
  Faringdon (or Great Faringdon). 1863.  Former corn exchange and Savings Bank in Victorian Gothic Style. Grade II listed. Stone with ashlar dressings. Large one-storey hall with two-storey front range to Cornmarket Asymmetrical front range with two windows to Cornmarket.  Gothic doorway arched with quatrefoil opening and  tympanum and inscribed scroll over. Statue each side onbuttress with small carved canopy over. Three-sided canted oriel with 1863 date-stone. Cusped trefoil window heads with quatrefoil top-lights. Crow-stepped gablewith Gothic attic window under hood-mould.  Gloucester Street elevation similar, with two light windows on each floor, Main Hall with five windows between with buttresses. Long triple windows with dividing shafts and carved capitals, shouldered heads and carved bosses over shafts. The former Savings Bank is attached to the west with inscription Faringdon Savings Bank 1863.and monogrammed plaque 'FTSB 1818'.
   
  Oxford. An older corn exchange was replaced on a different site by the Gothic fire station and corn exchange were designed by H. W. Moore and built in George Street by Thomas Axtell in 1894–1896. The fire station was moved in 1971  and it has later been occupied by the Oxford Playhouse Company and an Arts centre.
  Wallingford. 1856. Corn exchange, Market Place.  Now theatre and cinema. Dated 1856 on an inscription on the  pediment.  Ashlared Bath stone in an Italianate style. Single storey with three-bay frontage. Stone plinth with moulded top. Vermiculated panels to base of pilasters to left of right of centre, and to base of rusticated piers to left and right. Blind balustrading between vermiculated panels. Double entrance door with canted surround and carved tympanum.  Corinthian pilasters on either side of the door. Corinthian capitals to rusticated piers on the left and right.  Bulls-eye windows with carved keystones up to the frieze of order. Gable with rose window having central clock. Inside there are cast-iron roof trusses by Wilders of Wallingford.
  Whitney. The corn exchange Market Square, built in 1863 by a private company. Italian Classical style. Squared and coursed limestone, with rusticated pilaster strips and dressings Semi-circular arched doorway with rusticated surrounds to panelled double-leaf doors; balcony above supported by two huge brackets with carved flower swags. First-floor cross-windows set in moulded stone architraves with bracketed cornices and central segmental pediment. Modillioned stone cornice beneath low parapet. Consoles flank central open-pedimented gable with ball finials and lunette.
caption: The Market Square entrance to Cornhill Corn Exchange.
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