Liverpool Cotton Exchange Building

The business of the cotton exchange was originally conducted outdoors on Exchange Flags, behind Liverpool Town Hall. The first Cotton Exchange Building was built in 1808 adjacent to the flags. The present building in Old Hall Street was designed by Matear and Simon (Old Liverpool Cotton Exchange Building in Old Hall Street (built 1905; largely demolished 1967–69)), built by the Waring-White Building Company, and was officially opened by the Prince and Princess of Wales on 30 November 1906. The building cost around £300,000 build and the opening took place in the company of 3,000 guests. Its façade was in Neoclassical style, with Baroque towers at the angles. Its exterior decoration included…

The building is in seven storeys, and the modern front on Old Hall Street, facing southwest, has 21 bays. The sides and back of the building are largely unaltered from the original design. There are two levels of basements which originally contained the building's coal bunkers, restaurant and ballrooms. The façade on Edmund Street, facing northwest, has retained cast iron panels decorated with wreaths, made by Macfarlane's of Glasgow. The back of the building, on Bixteth Street, is faced with Portland stone, and the Ormond Street front is in brick. Inside the building the colonnade formerly surrounding the trading floor is still present. The columns are monoliths of larvikite, quarried in…