About me
Bookshop

Get new posts by email.

About me

Royal Exchange

Middlesbrough’s Royal Exchange building opened in 1868, and quickly became one of the most important sites for industrial deal-making in England at the heart of the town nicknamed ‘Ironopolis’. A very grand Italianate building, it featured all sorts of intricate stonework and decoration.

It was, however, demolished in 1985 to make way for the much uglier A66. As a sop to the historical importance of the site, some of the twiddly bits of stonework are retained on these little poles in Exchange Square, near the original site of the building.

This post was filed under: Photos, Travel, .

Recently published posts

My 2025 in 25 numbers / 01 January 2026

‘Three Days in June’ by Anne Tyler / 01 December 2025

Third time lucky / 24 November 2025

When Molly lifted Sunderland high / 10 November 2025

Deeds, not numbers / 03 November 2025

‘Air’ by John Boyne / 27 October 2025




Random posts from the archive

Swing Update / 29 April 2005

Sycamore Gap is all around us / 10 October 2023

What I’ve been reading this month / 03 August 2019

Photo-a-day 176: Heavy rain / 24 June 2012

36 Grays Lane / 29 July 2007

Pope meets Hand of God? / 27 March 2005





The content of this site is copyright protected by a Creative Commons License, with some rights reserved. All trademarks, images and logos remain the property of their respective owners. The accuracy of information on this site is in no way guaranteed. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author. No responsibility can be accepted for any loss or damage caused by reliance on the information provided by this site. Information about cookies and the handling of emails submitted for the 'new posts by email' service can be found in the privacy policy. This site uses affiliate links: if you buy something via a link on this site, I might get a small percentage in commission. Here's hoping.