Southern Hotel, Mauldeth Road West, Chorlton-cum-Hardy. (c) Phil Champion at Geograph under Creative Commons.
The Southern Hotel on Mauldeth Road West closed in 2011 after over 90 years of serving this corner of Chorlton-cum-Hardy. Towards the end it was heavily Irish-themed with the Celtic Tiger nightclub and Mammy's Irish Kitchen part of this huge inter-war boozer. This points towards the historically large Irish population of Chorlton, which is still apparent today in some of the trendy suburb's more traditional pubs.
Southern Hotel, Mauldeth Road West. (c) raver_mikey at flickr.
The Southern was built in the 1920s by Swales Brewery - rather unfortunately remembered around these parts for "Swales's Swill" - who ended up being taken over by Boddingtons in 1971 [1]. On my one visit to the Southern in the early 2000s it was Boddingtons Smoothflow that I had the misfortune to be served then. It seemed to be struggling then and sporadic closures preceded the final one in April 2011.
Southern Hotel, Mauldeth Road West. (c) Jenics.
On a prominent junction on the corner of Nell Lane and Mauldeth Road West, the Southern had two large bars and seating area, plus a function room and two more bars on the first floor. The old pub was recently for sale for £495,000, with its licence retained, although the estate agents were keen to stress the potential for alternative use [2].
Southern Hotel, Mauldeth Road West. (c) Phil Champion at Geograph under Creative Commons.
However, the news locally was that the Southern Hotel had been taken over this year by a curry house, and it's recently reopened as Sai Spice. This end of Chorlton has sparse pickings pub-wise - just the cafe-bar place and the soulless new-build, Christie Fields (where the old Oaks Hotel used to be), on Barlow Moor Road.
However, the news locally was that the Southern Hotel had been taken over this year by a curry house, and it's recently reopened as Sai Spice. This end of Chorlton has sparse pickings pub-wise - just the cafe-bar place and the soulless new-build, Christie Fields (where the old Oaks Hotel used to be), on Barlow Moor Road.
