Commerce and Exchange Buildings

A guide to outline the selection criteria used when listing commerce and exchange buildings. These range from small local shops to huge department stores, from corner pubs to Victorian ‘gin palaces’, from simple sets of chambers to huge speculative office blocks. Market halls, exchanges, banks and restaurants are also included.

Commercial architecture always placed a high premium on novelty and effect. This has resulted in some of the country’s most splendid public high street architecture. However, it has also led to constant change, especially regarding shop fronts and fittings. What has endured is all the more precious as a result.

The categories in this guide broadly cover buildings for the 'face to face' buying and selling of goods or services by providers to the general public: shops and stores, market halls and exchanges; hotels, restaurants, inns and pubs; and banks. Offices and chambers, although less public, are most conveniently covered here. Warehouse are dealt with in the Industrial selection guide.

This is one of a series of guides which set out some of our approaches to listing buildings. Covering twenty broad categories of building types, they including historical overviews and special considerations for listing, plus select bibliographies. They are primarily intended to develop understanding of listed buildings and structures, and to offer insight into listing decision making.