Corn Exchange, Manchester is a

grade II listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

, England. The building was originally used as a

corn exchange A corn exchange is a building where merchants trade grains. The word "corn" in British English denotes all cereal grains, such as wheat and barley; in the United States these buildings were called grain exchange. Such trade was common in towns ...

and was previously named the Corn & Produce Exchange, and subsequently The Triangle. Following the IRA bomb in 1996 it was renovated and was a modern shopping centre till 2014. The building was sold to investors and has been re-developed into a dining destination with food outlets.

History

The first Corn Exchange built on this site in 1837 was designed by Richard Lane. This was demolished in 1896 and replaced in two sections between 1896 and 1903. Each section was designed by a different architect, the first from 1896–99 by Ball & Elce and the second, from 1899–1903, by Potts, Son, & Hennings. Before 1837 it traded from Hanging Ditch. The Corn & Produce Exchange was the gathering spot for thousands of traders from all over the region. This continued until the economic depression of the 1920s and 1930s. Following the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, trade gradually declined and the trading floor fell into disuse. The building was used briefly by the Royal Exchange Theatre Company from 1976. It also served as a filming location for

Granada Television ITV Granada, formerly known as Granada Television, is the ITV franchisee for the North West of England and Isle of Man. From 1956 to 1968 it broadcast to both the north west and Yorkshire but only on weekdays as ABC Weekend Television was it ...

's ''

Brideshead Revisited ''Brideshead Revisited: The Sacred & Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder'' is a novel by English writer Evelyn Waugh, first published in 1945. It follows, from the 1920s to the early 1940s, the life and romances of the protagonist Charles ...

''. Until 1996 it was a gathering place for alternative communities and contained a large market with small stallholders selling clothes, jewellery and piercing paraphernalia, and second hand record shops. Many of the shops were temporary structures on the trading floor of the exchange, with other shops operated from permanent units and offices around the perimeter. There was also a small café in a basement area to the northeast of the ground floor. The exterior of the building also housed many shops in a basement area. After being heavily damaged by the 1996 bomb many of these businesses were forced to move to new premises, mostly in the north of the city, where many foundered. The Corn Exchange was renovated and reopened as the Triangle Shopping Centre (because of its shape). Most of the

Edwardian The Edwardian era or Edwardian period of British history spanned the reign of King Edward VII, 1901 to 1910 and is sometimes extended to the start of the First World War. The death of Queen Victoria in January 1901 marked the end of the Victori ...

interior was replaced by high-class retail outlets including

MUJI (), or is a Japanese retail company which sells a wide variety of household and consumer goods. Muji's design philosophy is minimalist, and it places an emphasis on recycling, reducing production and packaging waste, and a no-logo or "no-brand ...

, a flagship Adidas store,

O'Neill The O'Neill dynasty ( Irish: ''Ó Néill'') are a lineage of Irish Gaelic origin, that held prominent positions and titles in Ireland and elsewhere. As kings of Cenél nEógain, they were historically the most prominent family of the Norther ...

and Jigsaw, all of which have now closed. In 2005, The Norwich Property Trust, the largest authorised commercial property unit trust in the UK, acquired the Triangle for £67m from American property company

the Blackstone Group Blackstone Inc. is an American alternative investment management company based in New York City. Blackstone's private equity business has been one of the largest investors in leveraged buyouts in the last three decades, while its real estate ...

and its UK-based partners Milligan Retail Resorts International. In 2012, The Triangle was relaunched as Corn Exchange, Manchester. Plans were revealed to convert the building into a food outlet and hotel. In 2014 work commenced by a demolition company to strip out modern interior materials and fixtures, some of which were being offered for reuse as salvage and reclamation, prior to recycling or landfill. The food outlet opened in 2015. In 2018, Roomzzz Aparthotels opened with a 114 rooms on the upper floors of the Corn Exchange with a ground floor reception at the main entrance.

References

External links

Corn Exchange, ManchesterManchester Corn Exchange reclamation
{{Manchester B&S Commercial buildings in Manchester Grade II listed buildings in Manchester Grade II listed commercial buildings Tourist attractions in Manchester

History

See also

References

External links