The site currently occupied by the corn exchange on the north side of Fore Street originally accommodated a jail which dated from around 1702 and which had been demolished in 1777 to make way for a butchers' market. Corn merchants traded in corn behind the
Shire Hall until the first purpose-built corn exchange was erected immediately to the west of the Cross Keys Inn on Fore Street in the 1840s. In the mid-19th century, civic leaders decided that the original structure was inadequate and should be replaced with a new structure. The new building was designed by
William Hill of
Leeds in the
neoclassical style, built in
ashlar stone and was completed in 1859. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage of three bays facing onto Fore Street. On the ground floor, the central bay contained a panelled doorway while the outer bays contained tri-partite windows where the parts were separated by
antae. The first floor was fenestrated by three round headed windows with
architraves and
keystones, each with an inner window, where the parts were also separated by antae. The bays were flanked by
Corinthian order pilasters which supported an
entablature and a
pediment. The entablature was inscribed with the words "Corn Exchange and Public Hall", while the pediment containing a circular panel bearing a carving of a
hart in the
tympanum. Internally, the principal room was the main hall which was intended to serve as a library when not in use for corn trading. The architectural historian,
Nikolaus Pevsner, described the design as "like that of an ambitious methodist chapel". 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. In August 1914, at the start of the
First World War, recruits for the
4th (Militia) battalion, The Bedfordshire Regiment were billeted in the building. At the apex of the pediment there was originally a statue of the Roman goddess of agriculture,
Ceres, but this was removed during the
Second World War to prevent it causing injury to passers-by during German bombing. and the rock band,
The Kinks, in June 1966. In May 1979,
East Hertfordshire District Council gave planning consent to convert the ground floor of the building, on the Market Street elevation, into shops while retaining the first floor for use as a public hall. The building was acquired by the concert promoter, Chris Addison, in 2008. ==See also==