Bristol Market History: The Exchange and the City Around It
The Exchange, St Nicholas Market and the surrounding streets tell different parts of Bristol’s trading history. Their dates explain how the area developed.
Published
Bristol’s market history around Corn Street has several beginnings. The Exchange was built in 1741–1743 for merchants to conduct business. Market trading behind it followed in 1745, while the building called the Covered Market dates from 1849. Keeping those stages separate helps explain how a merchants’ meeting place became part of the market area familiar today.[1][3]
The Market Map Written Into Bristol’s Streets
Long before the Exchange, trading occupied Bristol’s streets. Bristol Museums, the council’s museum service, describes medieval stalls in the High Street and specialist markets selling goods including cheese, leather, wool, oysters, geese and corn. Household shopping and merchants’ wholesale business belonged to the same wider trading world.[2]
Some of those markets survive most clearly in names. The museum identifies Cattle Market Road, the Wool Hall, the Horse Fair, the Hay Market, Old Market and Corn Street as reminders of earlier trading activity. Read together, they offer a useful way to think about Bristol’s market history: as a collection of places serving different goods and customers across the city.[2]
That history also continued beyond the central market streets. The museum dates Bristol’s cattle market from the Middle Ages until 2005, with farmers bringing livestock from Wales, Ireland and the surrounding area to sell to local butchers.[2]
Why Merchants Needed the Exchange
Historic England, the public body responsible for England’s national heritage list, records that merchants previously met at the open arcaded Tolzey outside All Saints church. The Corporation began planning a replacement in 1717. John Wood the Elder received the commission in 1741, and Bristol City Council’s historical account dates the Exchange’s official opening to 1743.[1][3]
Wood initially proposed a covered hall. Merchants instead received an open courtyard, following the exchange model used in Antwerp and London. Historic England’s account describes resistance to the unfamiliar idea of conducting mercantile business under cover. The roof associated with the later market belongs to another stage of the building’s life.[1][3]
A tavern and coffee house were incorporated into the building to support business. The historic nails, the flat-topped metal stands associated with transactions, were moved from the Tolzey. Historic England records the tradition connecting them with the expression “pay on the nail”, but presents that connection as something said about them. It does not establish the phrase’s origin.[1]
The commercial wealth behind the Exchange also requires an account of slavery. Historic England connects Bristol’s eighteenth-century prosperity with merchants’ involvement in the trade in enslaved people, Bristol-made goods exchanged for captives, and sugar and tobacco produced through enslaved labour. This history belongs within an explanation of the Exchange’s purpose and the mercantile community it served.[1]
What Opened in 1745, and What Was Built in 1849?
The museum’s short history describes the covered St Nicholas Market as opening in 1745. The council’s more detailed chronology separates the market’s beginnings from the construction of its later accommodation. It says fruit and vegetable markets operated in the open streets until 1745, then moved to an open site behind the Exchange.[2][3]
In that council chronology, 1849 is the construction date of the Covered Market as a fruit and vegetable market. The accounts differ in their description of the market at its beginning. For understanding the buildings, the council’s distinction between an open market site and a later covered structure is especially useful.[2][3]
The dates answer different questions. The Exchange’s opening in 1743 concerns the merchants’ building. The year 1745 concerns market trading behind it. The year 1849 concerns the purpose-built Covered Market. Fruit and vegetable trading there continued until its relocation to St Philips in the 1950s, according to the council.[3]
A Roof and New Uses for the Exchange
In 1872, the Corporation covered the Exchange courtyard with a glass dome. The council compares its design with Crystal Palace and records that wartime damage led to the dome’s demolition. The building’s history includes substantial changes to the space where merchants originally met in the open.[3]
The council dates a wider modernisation to 1950, preparing the Exchange for dances, exhibitions and meetings alongside the Thursday Corn Market. Its account then traces a shift towards antique markets in the 1970s before the development of its later market use. Shopping is only one chapter in the building’s changing functions.[3]
The Glass Arcade Has a Separate Trading History
The Glass Arcade adds another strand. The council traces Bristol’s recorded covered meat-market buildings back to 1598, behind a house in Broad Street. It describes subsequent moves behind the Exchange and then to Union Street, where the meat market remained until 1908. Meat and poultry arcades were established in the area now called the Glass Arcade.[3]
That 1598 reference belongs to the earlier Broad Street market. It supplies no construction date for the Glass Arcade. When looking at the area, keep the names distinct: the Exchange began as a merchants’ building, the Covered Market housed fruit and vegetables, and the Glass Arcade carries a history of meat and poultry trading. Use those separate histories to read the spaces around Corn Street.[1][3]
Sources and checks
These sources were used for this article. Availability, prices and service details can change after the stated check date.
- The Exchange, Non Civil Parish - 1298770 | Historic England
Checked 20 October 2026.
The Exchange was built for merchants to transact business, replacing their use of the Tolzey outside All Saints church. Planning began in 1717 and John Wood received the commission in 1741. Wood proposed a covered hall, but an open courtyard followed the exchange model used in Antwerp and London. The building incorporated a tavern and coffee house. The nails were moved from the Tolzey, and the connection with the expression pay on the nail is presented as a tradition. Historic England connects Bristol’s mercantile prosperity with slavery, Bristol-made trading goods, sugar refining and tobacco produced through enslaved labour.
- Bristol City Council : Museum Collections
Checked 20 October 2026.
Medieval market stalls occupied the High Street. Bristol had general and specialist markets serving wholesale and retail customers. The named streets and places preserve reminders of earlier market activity. Bristol’s cattle market continued until 2005 and received livestock from Wales, Ireland and the local area. The museum describes covered St Nicholas Market as opening in 1745, wording compared with the council’s separate chronology of the market site and later buildings.
- https://services.bristol.gov.uk/files/documents/7487-markets-charter-licensing-policy-2024/file
Checked 20 October 2026.
The Exchange officially opened in 1743 as a building used by merchants. The courtyard was covered with a glass dome in 1872, which was damaged during the Second World War and subsequently demolished. Modernisation in 1950 accommodated dances, exhibitions, meetings and the Thursday Corn Market. Antique markets began using the Exchange in the 1970s. Fruit and vegetable markets moved from the streets to an open site behind the Exchange in 1745. The Covered Market was built in 1849 for fruit and vegetable trading, which relocated to St Philips in the 1950s. The 1598 meat-market building was in Broad Street, rather than a dated construction of the Glass Arcade. The meat market subsequently moved behind the Exchange and to Union Street, while meat and poultry arcades were established in the area now called the Glass Arcade.