After some debate, they selected a site on the north side of Queen Street [3] The building was designed by Henry Goddard in the Italianate style, built in ashlar stone and was completed in July 1854.

[1] A rival faction, who had dissented over the location chosen, commissioned an alternative hall designed by Bellamy and Hardy on the corner of the Market Place and the High Street.

[3][a] The use of the Queen Street building as a corn exchange declined significantly in the wake of the Great Depression of British Agriculture in the late 19th century.

[9] After the war and, into the 21st century, regular auctions of agricultural goods were held in the corn exchange sale room.

[10][11] An extensive programme of refurbishment works was completed in 2008, and the building subsequently became the offices of a firm of chartered surveyors, Perkins, George Mawer & Co.[3]