History of the Triangle

STEP BACK IN TIME AT TRIANGLE
WITH THE LAUNCH OF A HISTORICAL PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITION

FROM 29 June 2009, take a trip back to 1837 and experience the historical Grade II listed building over different decades before it became one of Manchester’s biggest fashion hubs.

Triangle Shopping Centre, in Exchange Square, will be paying tribute to the building’s history and celebrating 172 years of trading by installing a permanent photography exhibition in unit 22a on the Ground Floor for Manchester’s history aficionados to enjoy.

Local architects, Manchester Library and various private collections have supplied the photography.

The present building is one of Manchester’s finest iconic structures and stands on the site of an earlier structure built in 1837 trading from Hanging Ditch. This was replaced in 1897 by the current building, which opened for business in 1903 as 'The Corn Exchange', which was eventually renamed ‘The Corn, Grocery and Produce Exchange’ as the use of the building changed.

In its heyday, ‘The Corn Exchange’, was the gathering spot for thousands of traders from all over the region and an epicentre for trade in Manchester and the North West, this continued until the economic depression of the 1920s and 1930s.

Following the Second World War, trade gradually declined and the trading floor fell into disuse. The building, was used briefly by The Royal Exchange Theatre Company from 1976 and it also served as a filming location for Granada Television's 'Brideshead Revisited'.

From this period until 1996 it became a gathering place for alternative communities and contained a large market with small stallholders selling clothes, jewellery 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.

After the devastation of the 1996 IRA bomb The Corn Exchange was renovated, rebuilt and reopened in the year 2000 as Triangle Shopping Centre (because of its shape). The stunning Edwardian ceiling is to this day one of Manchester’s finest examples of early 19th Century architecture and it is now home to a range of restaurants, boutique and high street stores.

The exhibition focuses on five significant periods in Triangle’s history; The Old Corn Exchange (1837-1897), The Corn, Grocery and Produce Exchange (1903-1996), The Manchester IRA Bombing (1996), The Rebuild (1996-2000) and The Emergence of Triangle (2000-Present).

The Francis House trust will benefit from contributions made at the exhibition, and all of the periods showcased in the retrospective will include informative text, quotations and historical images.