Exchange Flags

Exchange Flags is defined by a large, open-air square framed by a pair of massive, eleven-story office buildings known as Walker House and Horton House. This site sits directly behind the Liverpool Town Hall and historically functioned as the city’s primary trading floor. In the nineteenth century, merchants and brokers gathered here in the open air to negotiate deals in cotton and global commodities. Traders used physical flags as markers to identify themselves and the origin of their goods, which gave the square its enduring name.