Manchester - Royal Exchange - 1906 local postmark to Brussels

Postcard
• Picture / Image:  Roal Exchange, Machester
• Publisher:  none given
• Postally used:  yes
• Stamp:  Edward VII half d. lighter green defin.
• Postmark(s):  Manchester Aug 24 1906 cds / Bruxelles Aug 25 1906 cds
• Sent to:  D. Hondt, Avenue du Midi 134, Brussels
• Notes / condition: 

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Text from the free encyclopedia WIKIPEDIA may appear below to give a little background information (internal links may not  work) :

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The Royal Exchange is a grade II listed^[1] building in Manchester, England. It is located in the city centre on the land bounded by St Ann's Square, Exchange Street, Market Street, Cross Street and Old Bank Street. The complex includes the Royal Exchange Theatre and the Royal Exchange shopping centre.

The Royal Exchange was heavily damaged in the Manchester Blitz and in the 1996 Manchester bombing. The current building is the last of several buildings on the site used for commodities exchange, primarily but not exclusively of cotton and textiles.

The cotton industry in Lancashire was served by the Manchester Royal Exchange which traded in spun yarn and finished goods throughout the world including Africa while the Liverpool Cotton Exchange traded in imported raw cotton. In the 18th century the trade was part of part the slave trade in which African slaves were transported to America where the cotton was grown and then exported to Liverpool where the raw cotton was sold.^[2]

The first exchange opened in 1729 but closed by the end of the century. As the cotton industry boomed, the need for a new exchange was recognised. Thomas Harrison designed the new exchange of 1809 at the junction of Market Street and Exchange Street.^[2] The expanding cotton industry required a larger building and its extension was completed in 1849. The second exchange was replaced, by a third exchange by Mills & Murgatroyd, constructed between 1867 and 1874.^[3] It was extended and modified by Bradshaw Gass & Hope between 1914 and 1931 to form the largest trading hall in England.^[3][4] The trading hall had three domes and was double the size of the current hall.^[1] The colonnade parallel to Cross Street marked the its centre. On trading days merchants and brokers struck deals which supported the jobs of tens of thousands of textile workers in Manchester and the surrounding towns.^[2] Manchester's cotton dealers and manufactureres trading from the Royal Exchange earned the city the name, Cottonopolis.^[5]

The exchange was seriously damaged during World War II when it took a direct hit from a bomb during a German air raid in the Manchester Blitz at Christmas in 1940. Its interior was rebuilt with a smaller trading area.^[3][6] The top stages of the clock tower, which had been destroyed, were replaced in a simpler form. Trading ceased in 1968, and the building was threatened with demolition.^[3][7]

The building remained empty until 1973 when it was used to house a theatre company. The Royal Exchange Theatre was founded in 1976 by artistic directors — Michael Elliott, Caspar Wrede, Richard Negri, James Maxwell and Braham Murray. It was opened by Laurence Olivier on 15 September 1976.^[8] In 1979, the artistic directorship was augmented by the appointment of Gregory Hersov.

The building was damaged on 15 June 1996 when an IRA bomb exploded in Corporation Street less than 50 yards away. The blast caused the dome to move, although the main structure was undamaged.^[9] That the adjacent St Ann's Church survived almost unscathed is probably due to the sheltering effect of the stone-built exchange. Repairs took over two years and cost £32 million, a sum provided by the National Lottery.^[10] Whilst the exchange was rebuilt, the theatre company performed in Castlefield. The theatre was repaired and provided with a second performance space, the Studio, a bookshop, craft shop, restaurant, bars and rooms for corporate hospitality. The theatre's workshops, costume department and rehearsal rooms were moved to Swan Street. The refurbished theatre re-opened on 30 November 1998 by Prince Edward. The opening production, Stanley Houghton's Hindle Wakes was the play that should have opened the day the bomb was exploded.^[11]

In 1999, the Royal Exchange was awarded 'Theatre of the Year' in the Barclays Theatre Awards, in recognition of its refurbishment and ambitious re-opening season.

The exchange has four storeys and two attic storeys built on a rectangular plan in Portland stone. It was designed in the Classical style. Its slate roof has three glazed domes and on the ground floor an arcade orientated east to west. It has a central atrium at first-floor level. The ground floor facade has channelled rusticated piers and the first, second and third floors have Corinthian columns with entablature and a modillioned cornice. The first attic storey has a balustraded parapet while the second attic storey has a mansard roof. At the north-west corner is a Baroque turret and there are domes over other corners. The west side has a massive round-headed entrance arch with wide steps up and the first and second floor windows have round-headed arches. The third floor and first attic storey have mullioned windows.

The theatre features a seven-sided steel and glass module that squats within the building's Great Hall. It is a pure theatre in the round in which the stage area is surrounded on all sides, and above, by seating.^[3] Its unique design conceived by Richard Negri of the Wimbledon School of Art is intended to create a vivid and immediate relationship between actors and audiences. As the floor of the exchange was unable to take the weight of the theatre and its audience, the module is suspended from the four columns carrying the hall's central dome. Only the stage area and ground-level seating rest on the floor. The 150-ton theatre structure opened in 1976 at a cost of £1 million amid some scepticism from Mancunians.^[13]

The theatre can seat an audience of up to 700 on three levels, making it the largest theatre in the round in Britain. There are 400 seats at ground level in a raked configuration, above which are two galleries, each with 150 seats set in two rows.^[14]

The Studio is a 100 seat studio theatre with no fixed stage area and moveable seats, allowing for a variety of production styles (in the round, thrust etc.) It acts as host to a programme of visiting touring theatre companies, stand-up comedians and performances for young people.