Brooklands Hotel, Marsland Road, Sale. (c) Laurel & Hardy British Tours [1].
The Brooklands Hotel was built in 1872 [2] on the corner of Hope Road and Marsland Road in Sale, and is shown here in 1905. It was owned by the Grand Hotel in Manchester as used as an annexe by them; Laurel and Hardy once stayed here for their Bolton show in 1947 [1]. Sadly the Brooklands Hotel was demolished exactly a century after it was built, in 1972, and replaced by the grim Marsland House offices. The still-serving Brooklands Tap estate-style pub and a petrol station were also built on the plot. The memory of the Brooklands Hotel lives on in a way, as the nearby 'Little B' pub is still named as such to avoid confusion with the 'Big Brooklands'. Comparing this 1954 photo with the view today (below) shows how this tree-lined stretch of Marsland Road is remarkably unchanged half a century later.
Former location of Brooklands Hotel, Marsland Road. (c) Google 2014. View Larger Map.