Corn Exchange Co Ltd

The Corn Exchange was founded in the 1740s, and the first exchange building was erected c 1750 on the east side of Mark Lane. This building was enlarged in 1827 and roofed in 1850. In 1882 it was demolished and replaced by a far larger building, designed by the architect Edward I'Anson, with an Italianate facade. The entrance to this building was on Mark Lane, but the building extended through to Seething Lane, where there was a private subscription room for the members. Until 1872 the Exchange was managed by a Committee of Members. In that year it was incorporated by Act of Parliament. Various later Acts were also obtained. In 1974 the Exchange became a limited liability company.

In 1826 a group of discontented corn traders obtained an Act of Parliament entitling them to set up a rival corn exchange, the London Corn Exchange, and in 1828 a separate London Corn Exchange building was constructed immediately north of the Corn Exchange on the same side of Mark Lane. This building was often referred to as the "New Corn Exchange", and the Corn Exchange building as the "Old Corn Exchange". In 1929 the London Corn Exchange merged with the Corn Exchange under an Act of Parliament of 1926, and the London Corn Exchange's 1828 building was demolished in 1931. The Corn Exchange's 1882 building was destroyed by enemy action in 1941, and a new building was reopened in 1953 on two-thirds of the former combined site of the Corn Exchange and the London Corn Exchange. Much of the Exchange's revenue by this date came from commercial lettings rather than members' subscriptions or the hire of dealing stands on the Exchange, and the 1953 building incorporated an 8-storey commercial office block. The 1953 building was itself demolished and rebuilt in 1973.

In 1975, following the Corn Exchange Act of that year, the shares of the Corn Exchange were admitted for the first time to the Stock Exchange Official List. By the 1980s the number of traders on the Exchange had declined severely, and in 1987 the remaining members of the Exchange's trading floor moved from Mark Lane to the Baltic Exchange in St Mary Axe.