Old Employment Exchange

OLD EMPLOYMENT EXCHANGE, THE SQUARE

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Overview

Heritage Category:
Listed Building
Grade:
II
List Entry Number:
1385360
Date first listed:
31-Dec-1973
List Entry Name:
Old Employment Exchange
Statutory Address:
OLD EMPLOYMENT EXCHANGE, THE SQUARE
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Date:
2004-06-20
Reference:
IOE01/12626/18
Rights:
© Dr Barbara Hilton. Source: Historic England Archive

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:
Listed Building
Grade:
II
List Entry Number:
1385360
Date first listed:
31-Dec-1973
Date of most recent amendment:
29-Sept-1999
List Entry Name:
Old Employment Exchange
Statutory Address 1:
OLD EMPLOYMENT EXCHANGE, THE SQUARE

The scope of legal protection for listed buildings

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

The scope of legal protection for listed buildings

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:
OLD EMPLOYMENT EXCHANGE, THE SQUARE

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

County:
Devon
District:
North Devon (District Authority)
Parish:
Barnstaple
National Grid Reference:
SS 55889 33032

Details

BARNSTAPLE

SS5533SE THE SQUARE
684-1/7/234 (North side)
31/12/73 Old Employment Exchange
(Formerly Listed as:
THE SQUARE
(North side)
Employment Exchange)

GV II

Bank, now shops and studio. Probably about 1850-60, re-roofed
in 1880s. For the West of England and South Wales District
Bank. Limestone ashlar on a granite ashlar plinth; red brick
side walls. Slated mansard roof. 2 limestone ashlar chimneys
with bracketed cornices and shaped tops. Red brick chimney at
rear (visible from Boutport Street), also with bracketed stone
cornice.
Ground floor seems to have consisted of a single large room,
presumably the banking hall, with offices in the front
right-hand corner. Entrance passage at far right-hand end
leading to staircase at rear. Classical mostly Italianate
style.
3 storeys with garret. 3-window range to The Square, 2 windows
to Boutport Street. Rusticated ground storey with vermiculated
quoins and surrounds to openings. 2 round-arched windows in
each front, together with round-arched doorways on rounded
corner and at right-hand end of front to The Square. Moulded
string course at impost-level. Plain window with transom
lights. 3-panelled double doors on corner; 6-panelled door to
stair hall. Dentilled cornice above ground storey. Pulvinated
frieze and cornice above 2nd storey. Heavily bracketed top
cornice and blocking-course.
2nd-storey windows have plain surrounds and cornices on
consoles, except for plain right-hand window facing The
Square; the other 2 windows on this side are of 3 lights.
3rd-storey windows, 4 to The Square and 2 to Boutport Street,
have moulded architraves slightly buttressed at the front.
Plain sashes in both upper storeys.
The rounded corner has a plain shaped panel in the 2nd storey
and a pair of shields with coats of arms in the 3rd storey. 3
dormer windows towards The Square, 2 to Boutport Street; all
have triangular pediments bracketed at the front and sides.
INTERIOR only ground floor inspected. Main room has panelled
walls and ceiling; enriched soffits to beams; both this and
the former office have modillioned cornices. Entrance passage
has similar cornice, together with chandelier boss.
Geometrical wood staircase with slender turned balusters,
carved step-ends, the balustrade voluted at the foot.
HISTORICAL NOTE: erected for the West of England and South
Wales District Bank, which opened a branch in Bridge Buildings
on the west side of The Square in 1845, moving to the present
site 'some years later'. The bank failed in 1878 and was
replaced in 1880 by a branch of the Devon and Cornwall Bank.
This was taken over by Lloyds Bank in 1906.
(Gardiner WP: Barnstaple, 1837-97: Barnstaple: 1897-: 238; The
Dark Horse (Lloyds Bank house magazine): July 1941: 1941-:
281).




Listing NGR: SS5588933032

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:
485822
Legacy System:
LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Gardiner, W F, Barnstaple 1837-1897, (1897), 238
The Dark Horse in July, (1941), 281

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.

Ordnance survey map of Old Employment Exchange

Map

This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 16-Jun-2026 at 02:09:13.

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© Crown copyright [and database rights] 2026. OS AC0000815036. Use of this mapping is subject to Terms and Conditions.

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.

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