Exeter Exchange
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The Exeter Exchange (signed and popularly known as Exeter Change) was a building on the north side of the Strand in London, with an arcade extending partway across the carriageway. It is most famous for the menagerie that occupied its upper floors for over fifty years, from 1773 until the building was demolished in 1829.
Its first century
Exeter Exchange was built in 1676, on the site of the demolished
The management began to re-purpose the upper rooms. In April 1770, Giovanni Battista Gervasio, an Italian mandolinist who toured Europe, gave a concert in "the room over the Exeter Exchange."[1] It was the first time it had been used for that purpose.[1]
The final half-century
From 1773, the upper rooms were let to a series of
Polito died in 1814, and the menagerie was acquired by one of his former employees,
Afterwards
Exeter Hall was built on the site, opening in 1831 and surviving until 1907. The site is now occupied by the Strand Palace Hotel (opened 1909), almost opposite the Savoy Hotel (1889).
References
- ^ a b "For the benefit of Sig Gervasio". The Public Advertisor. London. 27 April 1770. p. 1. Retrieved 8 June 2018.
External links
Media related to Exeter Exchange at Wikimedia Commons- History of Covent Garden, In And Around Covent Garden, 2004.
- Destruction of a Furious Elephant (Lithographic print, 6 March 1826)
- Destruction of the Noble Elephant (Hand-coloured print, c.1826)
- The Exeter Exchange, The Strand, London
