Manchester Corn Exchange commemorative trowel

Commemorative trowel used by Thomas Walker to lay the foundation stone for the new buildings of the Manchester Corn Grocery and Produce Exchange on the 10th of February 1892.

This trowel connects us to a grand building with an interesting past.

The Manchester Corn Grocery and Produce Exchange was built on the site of an earlier corn exchange building opened in 1837. Once complete, the new, ornate building allowed thousands of merchants from all over the region to gather and trade grain and other commodities under the impressive glass dome in the main atrium.

Thomas Walker, a Liberal politician for Blackpool was chosen to lay the building’s foundation stone. He was the son of Joseph Walker, a successful Manchester businessman and industrialist who owned mills and collieries. Joseph was on the Board of Directors of the Manchester Carriage and Tramways Company and a Director of the Manchester Corn Exchange.

Having avoided damage during the Blitz, the building fell victim to the biggest bomb detonated in the UK since the Second World War. Damaged in the bombing of Manchester city centre by the Provisional IRA on 15th June 1996, major repairs to the building were needed. Once complete, the building was rebranded as the Triangle, a centre for retail outlets.

In 2012 it was renovated and relaunched again, this time as the Corn Exchange, offering dining, leisure and hotel facilities. The original external structure of the building has remained largely unchanged.