Country Life has an article on a lost part of London’s urban heritage, the Coal Exchange, which was destroyed in 1962, when any Victorian building was liable to be demolished, basically for being Victorian.
The article has fine photographs of this pioneering iron frame building and tells the story of its building and the attempts to save it. The loss of the Euston Arch and of the Coal Exchange were the tragedies that brought to birth the conservation movement that has gone on to both save buildings and to make people appreciate Victorian design and craftsmanship.
I remember something of the efforts to save the Coal Exchange as well as the Euston Arch. Those were bad times to live through as historic city and town centres were ripped apart in the name of ‘progress’ and ‘redevelopment’. I think I still bear the psychological scars.
The article can be accessed at One of the first substantial buildings constructed from cast iron lives on only in the Country Life Archive
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