The Triangle, Manchester

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Facts and statistics
The Triangle
The corner of the Triangle Shopping Centre

Location	Manchester, England
Address	Exchange Square, Manchester, M4 3TR
Opening date	2000
No. of stores and services	approx 40
Total retail floor area	141,722sq ft
Parking	none
No. of floors	3
Website	www.trianglemanchester.co.uk

The Triangle is a grade II listed building^[1] in Manchester, England. The building was originally used as a corn exchange and was previously named the Corn & Produce Exchange. Following the IRA bomb in 1996 it was renovated and is now a modern shopping mall.

[edit] History

A map of the area circa 1650

The Triangle as it stands now.

The present building 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 and was called 'The Corn & Produce Exchange'. In its heyday it 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, 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's 'Brideshead Revisited'.

From approximately this period until 1996 it became 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 cafe in a basement area to the northeast of the ground floor. The exterior of the building also housed many shops in a basement area, including Harry Hall Cycles.

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.^[2] The Corn Exchange was renovated and reopened as the Triangle Shopping Centre (because of its shape). Most of the Edwardian interior was replaced by high-class retail outlets including MUJI, a flagship Adidas store, O'Neill, Calvin Klein and Jigsaw. The studios of Galaxy Manchester radio are also located in the Triangle.

The group Manchester Area Psychogeographic carried out a Levitation of the Corn Exchange, on February 10,1996.^[3]

[edit] References

^ Listed buildings (HTTP). Manchester City Council. Retrieved on 2007-10-29.
^ Bombed out (HTTP). Cathy Malcolm film on corn exchange traders following IRA bomb. Retrieved on 2007-10-30.
^ The day the Corn Exchange levitated (HTTP). The Independent on Sunday. Retrieved on 2007-10-31.