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.
We used to live on Kings Road about a seven minute walk away. It was a toss up between walking to the Southern or The Princess as each were about the same distance away. When the Egerton Estate was built, lord Egerton gave the land but stipulated that no pubs be built on it, hence the reason for the longish trek to a pub. The Caught on the Hop opened up on Withington Road ion Whalley Range around 1974, but was slightly further to walk than the other two
ReplyDeleteI trained as a RGN in Withington 89 to 92 and used to go to the Southern and to the comedy club "The Buzz" upstairs - also used top visit the Barleycorn where you could bump into "Curly Watts"
ReplyDeleteUsed to be a Jazz Club upstairs. You bought a supper ticket for 2/- After hours drinking!
ReplyDeleteElkie Brooks was a regular performer.
Was very popular upstairs use to get a lot in on a Thursday had a band on I used to work for direct work's and a lots of them use to go they use to tell one another about it.
ReplyDeleteUsed to go there on a Friday with mum and dad to listen to Jacke Anderson and his Satin Brass..
ReplyDelete