Prominent Exeter city centre building faces safety action over falling concrete risk

Exeter City Council wants to board up the windows of a prominent city centre building to stop chunks of concrete from falling on people walking below.

A noted historian once called the Corn Exchange in Market Street ‘rather tatty’, but it has been a favourite entertainment venue for the city for more than 60 years.

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The application is to cover some of the windows, where the ageing concrete has been damaged by exposure to carbon dioxide.

Over the windows facing onto Market Street and Guinea Street will go smart timber frames with vinyl covers advertising the Corn Exchange and its entertainment programme.

ABOVE: Windows at the Corn Exchange in Exeter (Image courtesy: Exeter City Council)

The current building replaced the Lower Market, which was opened in 1836 and demolished in the 1950s after being badly damaged by German bombing in 1942. 

The new building was designed by the city architect, Harold Rowe, in the ‘modernist’ style and was opened as St George’s Hall in 1960.

The main spaces are a market hall on the ground floor, with an events venue above. 

The architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner was unimpressed with the design and described it as ‘a rather tatty effort in a belated Festival of Britain spirit’.

It forms part of the city’s central conservation area.

A report attached to the application says the existing concrete window surrounds are suffering from carbonation, which is the reaction of carbon dioxide in the environment with calcium hydroxide in the cement paste.

It goes on: “The proposal to encapsulate the windows in a timber frame is to prevent possible failing concrete from the window surrounds from injuring members of the public.”

The report continues: “This proposal, we feel, would be preferable to boarding up the windows and leaving them unfinished. 

“The unfinished ply board would give a feeling of dereliction and encourage further anti-social behaviour and break-ins.”

The Corn Exchange has a busy programme of events throughout the year, many of them involving live music and comedy.