Saturday 23 December 2023

The lost pubs of Chorlton, No 1 the Oaks Hotel


I am looking at a photograph of the Oaks Hotel taken in 1959 and it is pretty much how I remember it two decades later. 

 It had been built sometime after 1911 and catered for the cemetery trade. 

It was a huge rambling building with a fine staircase and plenty of rooms which would have suited cemetery parties.  I suppose in its heyday it must have been a crowded and boisterous place, but when ever  I dropped in it just seemed empty and a little sad.

Perhaps the fact that to get to it you had to pass a line of businesses catering in cemetery goods was not conducive to a happy night out. 

And I rather think R.E. Stanley caught it at its best.  By the 1970s and early 80s the elegant lamp posts on either side of the entrance had gone and the front and enormous back car parks were showing their age.

Thinking about it I suppose I only ever went there a few times and a part from a few locals I guess most of its clientele were the funeral parties.  It closed in the early 1990s and was demolished soon afterwards.

Picture; The Oaks Hotel, by R.E.Stanley, May 1959, m17565, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City CouncilThe Feathers, another lost pub published on Sunday October 14th

13 comments:

  1. Had lot's of good night's in the oaks it's where I met my life long friends

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  2. There were a lot of famous people played there.

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  3. Siouxsie and the Banshees played here in 1977. Picture here: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/648518415092007239/

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  4. Had many a good night in the Oaks in the early seventies. It was my local and I was sad to see it demolished.

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  5. When did it close down.

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  6. Where about In chorlton was it

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  7. The pub was opposite Southern Cemetery, close to the Parkway and closed in the 1990s.

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  8. I went to the Oaks disco regularly in the early 70s, great nights

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  9. Wythenshawe singer Paul Young and his band Sad Cafe played there in 1977

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  10. I lived round the corner from The Oaks. Lovely pub. Lovely atmosphere on Christmas day

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  11. 1976/77 i saw Eddy and the Hot Rods here. Another time arrived late and missed the Slits gig, my favourite band at the time.......

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  12. Met my future wife in 1966 in the Oats , we've been married 55years

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