COAL EXCHANGE AND MARKET

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: CLA/073
Held at	: London Metropolitan Archives   Click here to find out how to view this collection at https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/lma ›
Full title	: COAL EXCHANGE AND MARKET
Date(s)	: 1696-1962
Level of description	: Collection
Extent	: 2.5 linear metres
Name of creator(s)	: Corporation of London

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

The Corporation of London had exercised the right to charge duties on coal entering the City since medieval times. Coal duties were charged to raise money for particular projects, such as the rebuilding of the City after the Great Fire in 1666. A new Coal Exchange and Market was constructed on Lower Thames Street, close to Billingsgate Market. The building was opened by Prince Albert in 1849. A Roman hypocaust was found during construction and preserved in the basement of the building. The market was designed by James Bunning, City Architect, in the form of a rotunda, with interior galleries and an iron framework. The decoration of the market was well-known, including murals showing some of the flowers and fossils found in coal formations.

The building included offices for coal factors and others connected with the trade including the Corporation of London officers, who entered all ships bringing coal into the port of London, and collected the City dues on all coal brought within certain limits. The money collected by this tax was usually employed for metropolitan improvements. The Exchange was the property of the Corporation of London, and an open market was held there three days a week, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Records of the Coal Exchange and Market, 1696-1962, including papers of the Clerk of the market, Mayor's Court verdicts regarding the market, rentals and tenancy agreements, financial accounts of the Coal Market and Coal Market Fund, photographs, pamphlets and histories of the market.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

In sections according to catalogue.

Conditions governing access:

Available for general access.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copyright: City of London

Finding aids:

Please see online catalogues at: http://search.lma.gov.uk/opac_lma/index.htm

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Corporation of London Records Office.

Allied Materials

Related material:

For Corporation of London records relating to Markets see: CLA/009: Markets, CLA/010: Billingsgate Market, CLA/011: Leadenhall Market, CLA/012: Foreign Cattle Market, Deptford, CLA/013: Spitalfields market, CLA/014: Newgate Market, CLA/015: Metropolitan Cattle Market, CLA/016: Smithfield Market, CLA/017: London Central Markets, Smithfield, CLA/073: Coal Exchange and Market, COL/CC/BLM: Court of Common Council Billingsgate and Leadenhall Markets Committee, COL/CC/CEM: Court of Common Council Central Markets Committee, COL/CC/CTM: Court of Common Council Cattle Markets Committee, COL/CC/MKC: Court of Common Council Markets Committee, COL/CC/MRI: Court of Common Council Markets Improvement Committee, COL/CC/MRJ: Court of Common Council Joint Markets Advisory Committee, COL/CC/MRK: Markets Committee, COL/CC/MRS: Select Markets Committee (Smithfield Fruit and Vegetable Market), COL/CC/SMC: Special Markets Committee, COL/CC/SPM: Spitalfields Market Committee, COL/CCS: Comptroller and City Solicitor, COL/CCS/CO: Comptroller, COL/CH: Charters, COL/CHD/RN: Chamberlain's Department: Rents and Rentals, COL/PL: Plans, COL/PLD/PL: Planning Department Plans, COL/SVD/PL: Surveyor's Department Plans, COL/TSD/PL: Technical Services Department Plans.

Publication note:

Many of James Bunning's designs for the Coal Exchange can be found in Marble Halls: Drawings and Models for Victorian Secular Buildings, catalogue of an exhibition held at the Victoria and Albert Museum, 1973.

Description Notes

Archivist's note:

Rules or conventions:
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
February 2009