The original Corn Exchange Building, so badly damaged in the IRA bombing of 1996, has been wonderfully ressurrected as the Triangle - the exterior of the old building faithfully preserved and can be seen best from Exchange Square, in the newly designated Millennium Quarter, while inside a new state-of-the-art shopping mall has been created.
Despite its reputation as "Cottonopolis", Manchester's wealth was not only built on cotton, but also as a distribution centre of foodstuffs and many other raw materials to the surrounding region. The Manchester Ship Canal and Manchester Docks (more properly in Salford) had obviated the need to rely on materials from Liverpool, and by 1879 Manchester was attracting thousands of dealers every week to its various food and material exchanges.
In 1903 the new Corn & Produce Exchange was designed to handle regional trading in agricultural produce. Its vast hall with innumerable tiered side offices is dominated by a central glass dome. Despite suffering heavy bombing during World War II, many of its original fittings survive including its several imposing entrances and porches with their bronze and wrought ironwork.
For many year's, (up to the time of the bombing), the building acted as a covered market hall, a Mecca for students and specialising in "alternative" produce - vegetarian foods, numerous "New Age" and Occult shops, palmists, tarot readers, books, aromatherapy prerequisites, music and clothing. Well worth a browse, even if nothing takes your fancy.
Thanks to http://www.manchester2002-uk.com/shops/triangle.html
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