Hollywood Cinema

In the early 1850s, a group of local businessmen decided to form a private company, known as the "East Dereham Corn Exchange Company", to finance and commission a purpose-built corn exchange for the town. The investors included Thomas Coke, 2nd Earl of Leicester, whose seat was a Holkham Hall, and who took a personal interest in the project. The site selected, on the west side of the Market Place, had been occupied by The Shambles, a collection of dilapidated market stalls. The building was designed by Mathias Goggs of Swaffham in the neoclassical style, built in red brick with a stucco finish and was opened in February 1857. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage of five bays…