Corn Exchange, Salisbury

In the mid-19th century, a group of local businessmen decided to form a private company, known as the "Salisbury Railway and Market House Company", to finance and commission a purpose-built market hall for the town.[2] The site they chose, on the West side of the Market Place, had been occupied by the Maidenhead Inn, and was enclosed at the back by the River Avon. In order to maximise use of the market hall, they decided to build a branch railway line between Salisbury railway station and the market hall.[3]

The new building was designed by the chief engineer of the London and South Western Railway, John Strapp, in the neoclassical style, built in ashlar stone and was officially opened on 24 May 1859.[4][5] The design involved a symmetrical main frontage of three bays facing onto the Market Place. The central bay featured a large round headed opening with voussoirs, flanked by banded pilasters supporting an entablature and a pediment with a clock in the tympanum. The outer bays contained slightly smaller openings with voussoirs and cast iron gates made by Hill & Smith, flanked by pilasters supporting an entablature, a cornice and a parapet. Internally, the principal room was the main hall.[1]

The 1st Corps, Wiltshire Rifle Volunteer Corps, part of the Volunteer Force, used the market hall for drill practice after it was raised in 1860.[6] The building was subsequently re-branded as the "Corn Exchange", although 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.[7] The branch railway line was not affected by the nationalisation of British Railways in 1948, but was closed, following the implementation of the Beeching cuts, in 1964.[8][9]

The building continued to sell agricultural products, albeit in smaller volumes, until the site was redeveloped in the early 1970s.[10] The façade was retained and a small shopping mall known as the "Market Walk" was created through the left-hand opening. The central and right-hand bays were used to accommodate a public library and an art gallery, both of which relocated from buildings in Chipper Lane.[11][12] The art gallery, known as the "Young Gallery", had been established to exhibit a collection of paintings assembled by a collector, Edwin Young, which had been donated to the city in 1912.[13]

• Corn exchanges in England