History of The Exchange

The Building’s Original Purpose

‘The Exchange’ is the name given to the old telephone repeater station in Hamilton Road, Taunton. The building, in fact, was not an exchange but a site where major (trunk) telephone cables met. It was in this building that the telephone signal was amplified (boosted) to prevent it from deteriorating, which is what otherwise tended to happen when signals passed over great distances through copper wires. The building’s construction was conceived sometime prior to 1926 in response to the General Post Office (GPO) connecting up the enlarging but disparate parts of the UK telephone service. It was also a result of the growth of international telephone calling.

The Building’s Original Layout

The building was made up of 5 parts:

a large generator room on the ground floor;
a large equipment room on the upper floor;
an annex over two floors with offices, store rooms, mess rooms and dormitories;
a heating plant in the cellar below; and
a series of interconnecting underground passages and voids. (It was here that the ‘trunk’ telephone cables entered, before being routed to the appropriate equipment upstairs.

The Building Construction

The National Archives holds a document dated 1 February 1926 which refers to an application from F & E Small (builders) for the erection of the Taunton Repeater station. (Ref WORK 13/966). The work must have been completed well before 1930 since it is clearly visible on the Ordnance Survey map of that date.
The main structure remains largely unchanged. The generator and equipment rooms have a concrete frame with brick load-bearing walls and large iron-framed windows. The annex also has a concrete frame with conventional brick walls and steel-framed windows. The double pitched and hipped roof is finished with unusual interlocking Bridgwater clay roman style tiles with a central valley gutter separated by a lead lined valley gutter. The roof finishes to a raised brick parapet with outlets from the gutter to substantial cast iron downpipes. A bomb-proof room was formed on the ground floor. The chimneys, ornamental balconies and sheer presence of the building give it architectural significance as an example of service buildings of the pre-war era. The concrete-framed structure of the main building gave it a fairly adaptable space to hold equipment. The use of concrete in the U.K started with the invention of ‘Portland’ cement in early 1824. Although the material found more common use in France it did not quickly catch on in England. The next development was to encase steel in concrete creating reinforced concrete beams. Although a patent for this was filed in 1854, it seems that it was not widely utilised until the early 1900s. So, when this building was designed and built, its hybrid mix of concrete and brickwork structure made it quite a revolutionary design. Therefore, what some see as its less flattering features (i.e. concrete beams and pillars) are still of great architectural importance regionally, if not nationally. Although this has yet to be confirmed, it may be the earliest use of this form of building in Taunton (and possibly Somerset). It is certainly a building of historical significance since it is recorded on the Somerset Historic Environment Record (ref number 15040).
The construction seems to be of a ‘national’ design, probably by an architect who worked with the GPO on many projects. This would be expected since the GPO was a fairly centralised organisation and tended to standardise everything. Since it had gained a telecommunications monopoly in 1912 it wanted to make sure of its place by trade-marking many of its assets. On closer examination of the building, it can be seen that the architect has taken great care over details such as windows, small balconies, rainwater hoppers, exterior ironwork and even the building silhouette.

Position of the Building

The building was carefully sited alongside the main A38 trunk road where it would have been one of the first large buildings to be seen as visitors entered the town of Taunton.

Generators

Ruston & Hornsby Ltd of Lincoln, who made oil engines, designed the generators. They supplied two of their 7HE models, which had integral electrical generators that provided the power to help amplify the telephone signal.

The following documents still exist in the British Telecom Archives:

Plans of the engines in the power room - TCB/F4/370/51, TCB/F4/370/58 & TCB/F4/370/59
Details of handrails for the two engines - TCB/F4/370/65
Diagram of the foundations for the engines - TCB/F4/370/66 - dated 12 Feb 1927.
Diagram of details of the supports of the overhead water tanks TCB/F4/370/68 - dated 9^th Feb 1927

Telephony

As to the telephone equipment and amplifiers used, these have yet to be established but it is likely that they would have been upgraded often over the years. We must bear in mind that then, as now, telephony was constantly leaping forward. We are still trying to establish the equipment used through various historic interest groups.

The later years

1939-1942
At the outbreak of war in 1939, the building would have been identified as a key point in the area that must be defended. It was a principle means of communication both west to east and south to north and therefore a vital tool to track any invasion and to organise any required defence. According to anecdotal reports, it also carried the special direct ‘Hot Line’ to the USA.

1950s
During the 1950s, as the ‘Cold War’ deepened, it seems that these repeater stations were protected against the possibility of a nuclear attack. Certainly, eight extra “special” repeater stations were built at strategic points in the UK since the government knew that communications would be vital to enable the nation to recover from an attack. When Riverside Church purchased the Exchange (in 2001) there was still evidence of the building having been prepared to be defended against a nuclear attack. This was done by the addition of strengthened walls and ceilings in the sleeping quarters. Also, the building was fitted with an air conditioning / ventilation plant. Evidence indicates that, by fitting of positive air pressure air conditioning systems, it was thought that the staff could be protected against airborne fallout. The theory was that, by maintaining an air pressure inside the building slightly greater than the outside, in the event of an attack the air would be pushed out from the building, thus keeping contaminated air from going inside the building. The protection of this station, which was a key hub of the communication system between the UK and the USA, would have had a high priority. (Information obtained from “Portsdown Tunnels - Cold War- GPO PR1 repeater station” at www.portsdown-tunnel.org.uk)

More recent times

By the 1990s the building’s purpose had been superseded by more modern technology and was no longer required by British Telecom. It was left boarded up and unused, except for storage purposes, until it was purchased by Riverside Church in 2001. The Church has adapted the building to new uses without many alterations to its basic structure which remains to this day largely as it was conceived in the 1920s. It is now in a good state of repair except for the old ground floor Generator Hall, which the Church used for 5 years as a skate park and which the Church is now seeking grant funding to renovate and refurbish. The building was added to the Somerset Historic Heritage Register in August 2001 (Somerset Historic Environment Record. 15040).

Conclusion

It is certain that this striking ex-industrial building is important to the Taunton townscape, since the town has very few of its original industrial buildings left. Therefore, the revitalisation of this building by the Church represents a very positive act in terms of Taunton’s historic building stock. Most of the industrial sites that have been left derelict have been redeveloped and it is most likely that if this building was to become vacant it would be demolished and the site redeveloped.

A key requirement for the restoration and maintenance of an old building is establishing a viable, ongoing purpose, and the more useful it can become the more secure its future. Riverside Church’s use of the Exchange as a centre for the community establishes its new purpose, and the recent renovation of the main ground floor hall completes the restoration and helps to secure it as an architectural and historical landmark in Taunton.