Explore the space
Small exchange
Imagine waiting here to go in to see the mayor or one of the councillors working at the Town Hall.
This room is an entrance lobby, like the main Exchange but for visitors and guests on official borough business. It leads the way into the mayoral apartments and has a practical, hardwearing tiled floor.
Before the fire in 1883, the room was connected to the first clocktower which was above the entrance room next door. Much of the decoration here is about work but this time not the cotton or wool industry. The painted ceiling shows the wide variety of jobs that were commonplace in the borough at the time the Town Hall opened in 1871.
Work it
The decoration in here is like a history lesson. It’s an insight into the trades, crafts and industries that made Rochdale tick at the time the Town Hall was built.
The ceiling lists 27 jobs that were part of everyday life, whilst the frieze around the top of the walls shows animals valued as sources of material for clothes and shoes.
These designs were all the creations of Clement Heaton, the head designer at Heaton, Butler and Bayne’s, the London firm tasked with decorating the Town Hall. Find out more with the guide below.
Learn more about the images that adorn the walls and ceiling of the decorative small exchange.
The carved heads in here represent kings and queens.