Royal Exchange

The Royal Exchange Theatre was founded in 1976 in the old Cotton Exchange in Manchester. It was damaged in the bomb explosion in 1996 but rebuilt and reopened in 1999.

The theatre is a metal framework containing circles of seats to provide an auditorium "in the round." It sits within the massive and grand hall of the cotton exchange. It always makes me think of a space craft - like the module that landed on the mooon in 1969 - preparing for take-off through the great domed skylight.