One giant leap for Man(chester)kind...

Leap Day deserves a special post so I have decided on one of my favourite Mancunian interiors, The Royal Exchange Theatre.

The Royal Exchange was a cotton exchange with its current (and third) reincarnation on this site completed in the 1870s. It suffered bomb damage in both World War II and 1996. Trading ceased in 1968, in 1973 a theatre company moved in and by 1976 a theatre in the round had landed in the centre of the grand hall.

The clash of 19th century opulence and 20th century theatre venue, studio, gallery, craft centre and restaurants somehow works.  The theatre part has always reminded me of a giant version of the Apollo pods which landed on the moon. You can see the theatre/pod partially to the bottom right of this photo. I'll post other photos to do the pod and the rest of the building justice another time.

I fondly remember coming here on my first ever trip to Manchester in 1984 (an ominous literary year...). I was here for the weekend from London and, after an all night film show at the Uni, queued for cheap banquette tickets at about 8 a.m. The play I got to see that evening was Tom Stoppard's Jumpers with Julie Walters and Tom Courtenay, if memory serves me right...(Yes, it does, I just checked).

Linked to the Weekly Top Shot blog.