Liverpool Cotton Exchange Building
Liverpool Cotton Exchange Building | ||
---|---|---|
OS grid reference SJ 341 908 | | |
Built | 1905–06 | |
Built for | Liverpool Cotton Exchange | |
Restored | 1967–69 | |
Architect | Matear and Simon, Newton-Dawson, Forbes and Tate | |
Listed Building – Grade II | ||
Designated | 14 March 1975 | |
Reference no. | 1363092 | |
Liverpool Cotton Exchange Building is an office block in Old Hall Street, Liverpool, Merseyside, England. The commercial building, which originally had a Neoclassical façade, replaced the 19th-century cotton exchange in Exchange Flags in 1906. Between 1967 and 1969 the building's exterior was given a contemporary mid 20th century design.
The building is used mainly for offices; retail facilities operate at street level.
History
The business of the cotton exchange was originally conducted outdoors on Exchange Flags, behind
The building was home to Liverpool's registrar's office and coroner's courts up until January 2012. Up to 100,000 people a year used to visit the offices to register births, deaths and marriages before the facility was moved to St George's Hall.[7]
The suffragette, Edith Rigby, planted a bomb in the building on 5 July 1913,[8] and although it was later stated in court that ‘no great damage had been done by the explosion’, Mrs Rigby was found guilty and sentenced to nine months' imprisonment with hard labour.[9][10]
Architecture
The building is in seven storeys, and the modern front on Old Hall Street, facing southwest, has 21 bays. The sides and back of the building are largely unaltered from the original design. There are two levels of basements which originally contained the building's coal bunkers, restaurant and ballrooms.[11] The façade on Edmund Street, facing northwest, has retained cast iron panels decorated with wreaths, made by Macfarlane's of Glasgow. The back of the building, on Bixteth Street, is faced with Portland stone, and the Ormond Street front is in brick. Inside the building the colonnade formerly surrounding the trading floor is still present. The columns are monoliths of larvikite, quarried in Norway and polished in Aberdeen.[5] The building is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building.[12] Some of the statues formerly on the façade are now located nearby; these include personifications of Navigation and Commerce.[6]
See also
References
- ^ A city built on cotton, National Museums Liverpool, archived from the original on 13 November 2012, retrieved 23 March 2013
- ISBN 9780429013614.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link - ^ Houghton, Alistair (30 November 2016), "Liverpool's lost gem - why stunning Cotton Exchange facade was flattened", Liverpool Echo, retrieved 30 November 2016
- ^ "1830-1913 - ICA", International Cotton Association, retrieved 30 November 2016
- ^ ISBN 0-300-10258-5
- ^ a b c The Cotton Exchange, Bruntwood, retrieved 20 August 2011
- ^ Echo, Liverpool (14 December 2011), "Liverpool St George's hall to host city registry office for births, marriages and deaths with 200 weddings already booked (GALLERY)", Liverpool Echo
- ISBN 978-1135434021.
- ^ Mrs Rigby committed to trial, The Times, 18 July 1913, page 14, column c.
- ^ ‘The Explosion At Liverpool Exchange’, The Times, 31 July 1913, p. 8.
- ^ Houghton, Alistair (11 November 2016), "Leaf to open new venue in historic Cotton Exchange", retrieved 14 November 2016
- ^ Historic England, "Cotton Exchange Building, Liverpool (1363092)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 29 August 2012