Cotton, slavery and poetry: Theatre turns spotlight on its problematic past
A Manchester theatre is facing up to its history at the heart of the 19th Century cotton industry, which depended on slavery in America.
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An almighty clash of styles greets visitors who step inside the Royal Exchange.
You see the giant pink Victorian marble pillars and the domed glass roof of the opulent grand hall.
But you can't fail to notice the industrial 1970s metal frame and brightly coloured staircases of the theatre module, which looks like a spaceship
that's landed in the middle of the floor.
Amid that visual onslaught, it's easy to overlook some slightly dilapidated wooden boards high on one wall.
They bear names - Liverpool, New York, Alexandria, Paris, Sudan - and some numbers.
It still may not be immediately clear that they are the only obvious remnants from the building's original purpose.
They show the final prices from when the Royal Exchange was the main trading floor in the cotton capital of the world.
Five thousand merchants gathered in the building in the mid-19th Century to strike deals to export the cloth that had been manufactured in
the city's mills. It was rebuilt as business boomed, with much of the current building dating from 1874.
Manchester was known as Cottonopolis, and the Royal Exchange was the "parliament of the cotton lords".
Activity peaked in the 1920s when the Royal Exchange had 11,000 members. But trading stopped in 1968 - the date 31 Dec on the boards was
its final day.