From the outside, Manchester’s Royal Exchange looks similar to many of the other Victorian-era buildings around the city center, although the ground floor features multiple shops and restaurants as well as an arcade running through the center of the building. Steps on the east and west sides of the building lead to entrances with signs for the Royal Exchange Theatre mounted above on glass awnings. The average passerby might assume that these entrances lead to a lobby adjoining the theatre itself, but they would be incorrect. These doorways actually lead…