Grand Opera House

The front part of the current structure was commissioned as a corn exchange in the mid-1860s. It was designed by George Alfred Dean in the Italianate style, built in red brick and was officially opened on 28 October 1868. The design involved an asymmetrical main frontage facing onto Clifford Street and featured a series of linked round headed windows on the first floor. Internally, the principal room was the main hall which was 74 feet long and 63 feet wide. However, 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 the early 20th century, William Peacock acquired the corn exchange and a…