The History and Antiquities of London, Westminster, Southwark, and Parts Adjacent, vol. 3
Allen, Thomas
1827
Corn Exchange.
The business of a corn-broker is of modern growth and doubtful utility. Formerly the farmers of Kent and Essex used to send their grain up the river, and attend a sort of market at Bear Quay; but about the middle of the last century, when grain was cheap, the farmers often returned home without selling their grain. Those from Essex chiefly used the Bull inn, Whitechapel; and the landlord, who was of an enterprising spirit, proposed that the samples, with the prices, should be left with him, in order that he might try to dispose of the grain in their absence. This man, whose name was Johnson, and who was originally the of the inn, soon got so much business in this way, that he opened an office at Bear Quay as a corn factor, and amassed a fortune. | |
The business of corn factors soon increased so much, that they erected a market in , which is called the . The building, with which coffee-houses are connected, is of the Doric order; and the quadrangle, where the samples of grain are exhibited, is capacious. The brokers at wished to render the a private market; but on application to parliament it was thrown open. Opposite to this market is a much neater though smaller structure, called
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Adjoining the old is an elegant building called the | |