Corn Exchange, Haddington | |
Coordinates: | 55.9552°N -2.7804°W |
Location: | Court Street, Haddington |
Built: | 1854 |
Architect: | Francis Farquharson |
Architecture: | Neoclassical style |
Designation1: | Category B Listed Building |
Designation1 Offname: | Corn Exchange, Court Street, Haddington |
Designation1 Date: | 5 December 1977 |
Designation1 Number: | LB34257 |
The Corn Exchange is a commercial building in Court Street, Haddington, East Lothian, Scotland. The structure, which is now used as a community events venue, is a Category B listed building.
Until the mid-19th century, corn merchants conducted their trade under the arches of the Town House.[1] By the mid-19th century, this arrangement was deemed inadequate, and civic leaders decided to commission a dedicated corn exchange on a site to the east of the Sheriff Courthouse.[2]
The building was designed by Francis Farquharson in the neoclassical style, built in ashlar stone and was completed in 1854.[3] The design involved a symmetrical main frontage of three bays facing onto Court Street. The central bay featured a Venetian window with an architrave and a hood mould surmounted by a clock, while the outer bays contained doorways with architraves, triangular pediments and wrought iron lamp brackets. The central bay was surmounted by a raised pediment with a carving of a wheat sheaf in the tympanum. Internally, the principal room was the main hall which stretched back behind the main frontage.
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.[4] It was subsequently used as a community events venue and, during the First World War and the Second World War, it served as billeting for soldiers.[5]
In June 2014, the management of the building was transferred from East Lothian Council to the newly formed Haddington Community Development Trust.[6] An extensive programme of refurbishment works, undertaken by Maxi Construction at a cost of £800,000 to a design by Summers Inman, started on site in spring 2019.[7] [8] The work was paused while the building was used as a vaccination centre during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom.[9] After the work was adapted to allow the Brunton Theatre Trust to use the corn exchange for theatrical performances,[10] the building re-opened to the public again in October 2023.[11]