The Coal Exchange, Cardiff

After the first spade in the ground in 1883, Cardiff’s Coal Exchange was finally opened in 1886. Designed by an architect, Mr Edwin Seward, The Coal Exchange would serve as a centralised trading place for the rising boom of the Welsh coal industry. Coal owners, ship owners and trading agents would meet daily on the floor of the trading hall where, during peak hours, there could be as many as 200 men negotiating deal. After a brief closure the exchange reopened on February 20th, 1912 where it remained trading until the 1950s, during which time the war had made too great an impact on the coal industry to revive it. During the 1970s the Exchange opened once again as a club and hotel, receiving top acts and star names right through to its closure in 2013. In 2016 Signature Living announced that they were to take over the Coal Exchange and turn it into The Exchange Hotel and museum, centered around documenting the history of this iconic Welsh building.