Corn Exchange, Kettering

In the mid-19th century, a group of local businessmen decided to form a company, known as the "Town Hall and Corn Exchange Company" to finance and commission a purpose-built corn exchange for the town. The site they chose was on the east side of the Market Place. The building was designed by Edmund Francis Law in the Italianate style, built in red brick with stone facings at a cost of £2,950 and was completed in 1853. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage of three bays facing onto the Market Place. The central bay featured a square headed doorway flanked by brackets supporting a balcony with wrought iron railings. The outer bays on the ground floor and all three bays on the first…