[1] Until the mid-19th century, corn merchants in the town traded their goods in the open, with sacks piled in the paved area around the market cross.

[4] The current building was designed by Frederick Haydon Cruso and Alfred William Maberley in the Baroque style, built in ashlar stone and was completed in 1854.

At roof level, there was a central panel carved with the words "Corn Exchange Erected 1854" and surmounted by a statue of the goddess, Ceres.

[6] 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.

After an extensive programme of refurbishment works costing £4.4 million to a design by Levitt Bernstein Associates in the mid-1990s, the building was re-opened as an events and concert venue in 1996.