eventually closed in 1924 when it was converted into a textile factory. In 1976 the building burned, down leaving only the portico and the south and east walls. In 1984 Cork City Council purchased the site and built a craft centre around an enclosed garden inside the perimeter walls but this failed commercially and it has lain dormant for some time. In 2022 the City Council leasedtheButterExchangetoRecreateShandonCLG, a not-for-profit company, that plans to renovate the craft centre and turn it into a technology innovation centre. The Butter Exchange had a “Weighmaster” who checked the weights and measures to ensure that they were being honestly traded and he lived in a specially built house adjoining the Butter Exchange. This house remains extant on the site along with a covered hall at the rear which is the only portion of the Butter Exchange that survived the fire. Both the house and the covered hall are in a poor state of repair with a portion of the roof of the hall caved in. Weighmaster’s House, when built, offered a lively frontage to Church Street, with a deep overhanging canopy connecting to the Butter Market gates. Internally, the Weighmaster’s House and the Butter Market were also connected on the ground floor, with the Weighmaster’s house, situated above the north west corner of the market, having an internal oriel window overlooking the market floor below. The laminated curved beams of the part-collapsed roof of the Weighmasters house can be seen on historic photographs of the Butter Market.
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Butter Market entrance, 1900, NLI Lawrence Collection , showing historic ground levels and carriage access
1842 Map extract showing Butter Market before John Benson’s addition of the portico and incorporation of Weightmaste4r’s House
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1900 photograph of Church Street, extract showing the entrance to Weightmaster’s House, its gable chimney and canopy
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Historic Photograph of the interior of Butter Market, c.1900
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