Wool Exchange – Bradford, UK
Posted by: dtrebilc
N 53° 47.633 W 001° 45.150
30U E 582174 N 5961312
This plaque marks the Bradford Wool Exchange building that was used as a wholesale wool trading centre.
Waymark Code: WMAQD6
Location: Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 02/12/2011
Views: 1
This is a grade I listed building, it is no longer used as a wool exchange, but has been converted into offices and a small shopping centre. The main part of the hall now houses a book shop.
All the wool contracts were made verbally and only members were allowed on the trading floor. All the wool sold on the floor was independently checked for quality by a conditioning house elsewhere in Bradford.
As a non member you could still make trades off the trading floor but the quality of the wool was not guaranteed.
The building was completed in 1867, the architects being Lockwood and Mawson. It was built on the site of the old Piece Hall, the previous wholesale wool market in Bradford.
The plaque is on the Bank Street side of the building.
Update 10th May 2021 :- A new plaque has been erected on the building.
BRADFORD
CIVIC
SOCIETY
WOOL EXCHANGE
Lord Palmerston [the then Prime Minister]
laid the foundation stone for the wool exchange
in August 1864, and for the next 100 years, it was
the hub of Bradford's world renowned textile trade.
The building was designed by Lockwood and
Mawson in Venetian Gothic style, with some
Flemish influences, and was part-modernised
in the mid 1990s to incorporate new
retail and office space.
Erected 1867