A series of historical murals are located at the Mezzanine, around Engel and Jang.
Images of the murals can be seen below.
Free to explore all year round, you’ll find images of trade, pomp and ceremony, of royalty, splendour and history. These three below, for instance, commemorate moments in the Exchange’s long history. From left to right: the opening of the first Royal Exchange by Queen Elizabeth I in 1571; the destruction of the second Royal Exchange in 1838; and the opening of the third incarnation by Queen Victoria on the 28th October, 1844.
Clare Willsdon, in her book Mural Painting in Britain 1840-1940: Image and Meaning, explains that these paintings were supposed “to make permanent the passing (but of course highly symbolic) show of the newly revived mayoral procession, and can be seen as sharing in the ‘invention of tradition’ in the renewal from the late nineteenth century of ancient civic ceremonials.” She writes that here, “civic ritual was being translated into what was effectively a ‘new’ medium — pictorial decoration.”
“This process, calling into play all the famed ‘enterprise’ and ‘energy’ of the Londoner, explains much of the character of the Exchange scheme as an experiment, involving mistakes as well as triumphs.”
Ultimately, Willson argues that these paintings can only be understood in the context of the Exchange — rather than merely “some kind of dusty history painting with no significance.” This is the living art of London.
A guide to the history of the murals at The Royal Exchange can be downloaded below:
Visit Engel bar and Jang restaurant on our mezzanine
to view the murals.