The South Junction Hotel was on the corner of Oxford Street and Whitworth Street. The only evidence of the South Junction Hotel is the faint signage on the wall of the Acropolis restaurant in these two 1974 photos, OXFORD ROAD SOUTH JUNCTION HOTEL. In the latter can be seen the grand-looking old pub, The Oxford, which would have been four doors down. The South Junction stood where the Sainsbury's is now located on Oxford Street, opposite the Palace Theatre.
Former location of South Junction Hotel, Oxford Street. (c) Google 2010. View Larger Map.
Hi, sorry this is an anon comment but I don't have a Google account. The South Junction Hotel's full name in the 1903 trade directory was the Oxford Road Inn & South Junction Hotel. It stood hard by the Rochdale Canal facing the Tootal Broadhurst building, and not on the Whitworth Street West corner. The Oxford that you link to was a rebuild on the same site, with a shortened name. I assume the earlier pub's long name came from the nearby Oxford Road Station of the Manchester, Altrincham & South Junction Railway. The station opened in 1849. Possibly the establishment was some sort of railway hotel, either run with the railway or independently.
ReplyDeleteFurther to what I wrote above, the 1974 photos with the ghost sign for the hotel, show the brick wall that was exposed after the St Mary's Hospital building was demolished after its closure in 1969. The hospital stood on the Whitworth Street West corner. It's possible that hotel rooms were over the street-level shops (including Reno's famous music store!) seen in one of the photos. The pub/hotel entrance would probably have been through the building by the canal.
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