Swiss Hotel, Southern Street

The Swiss Hotel on Southern Street taken by Humphrey Spender around 1937. Center Street runs to the right of the pub, Back Center Street to its left. This image at the top of the page comes from the Bolton Worktown website  (copyright Bolton Council). 

David James Morris writes on the website that he lived at the pub from 1945 until 1961 as his grandfather, William Morris, was the landlord. David says that the front pillars and the outside cover were taken down during World War II as they were considered to be a blackout hazard.

The Swiss Hotel was one of a number of pubs situated within a few yards of each other in the Southern Street, Darley Street and Carlyle Street area. The others were the Queens and the Woodman.

The pub was part of an ambitious project to build a Swiss-type pleasure grounds in Brownlow Fold, still a rural area that was only just beginning to be developed in the 1860s.

In September 1865, a meeting was held at the St George's Tavern on St George's Road to discuss the feasibility of establishing such pleasure grounds. Around 30 local tradesmen attended the meeting which was chaired by Mr Gardner, a newsagent from Bradshawgate. Charles Seddon, the landlord of the St George's Tavern said that Bolton was notorious for not having a place of recreation sufficiently attractive to people to keep them more at home. The attendees at that meeting sought to form the Swiss Gardens And Hotel Company and Mr John Atkin (1832-1882), a beerseller of Brownlow Fold, identified a plot of land in that area which he felt would be suitable.

However, by the end of that year the plan had begun to unravel. A further meeting in December 1865 pointed to a lack of suitable approach roads for carriages as a major problem that might end up costing a considerable amount of money should the company undertake construction itself. But the council's decision in 1866 to open Heywood Park on High Street and Bolton Park – which became Queens Park in 1897 – must have had an affect on the company's thinking. The reason for its existence, which was to provide a recreation area in Bolton, had been largely superseded.

Instead of building Swiss gardens leisure grounds all that was left was John Atkin's pub – although one that now had a full licence that enabled it to sell wine and spirits as well as beer. Swansea-born John Atkin was in Brownlow Fold by 1864 and it seems that his establishment – or a rebuilt version of it – was all that remained of the ambitious garden project.

But if the development of Brownlow Fold as a Swiss-style recreation ground failed to happen, the area began to develop as a residential area. By October 1871 John Atkin – who had been elected to the Halliwell local board the previous year - was advertising the sale of eight new cottages in the area.

Atkin had left the area by 1877. By 1881 he was living at Walton-On-The-Hill in Liverpool – his wife was from that city – and was described as a retired innkeeper. He died two years later leaving a fortune worth over £6300 – the equivalent of almost £750,000 today. Most of that money appears to have come from the purchase of land in the Brownlow Fold area and the sale of properties built on that land.

In those days Halliwell was regarded as a township separate to Bolton although certain aspects – licensing being one of them – was carried out in Bolton. In 1877 a stormy meeting of ratepayers was held at the Swiss Hotel against the incorporation of Halliwell into the County Borough of Bolton. Most of the attendees were from the Brownlow Fold area and were set against incorporation, but the township was incorporated later that year largely on the wishes of the inhabitants of the Halliwell Road area.

By the 1880s and with much of Brownlow Fold now built upon the dream of a recreation ground and gardens were long gone. The area was much like any other district of Bolton – a mix of factories and housing. The Swiss Hotel was now a tied beerhouse having been bought by the local brewery of J. Atkinson and Co based at the Commission Street brewery off what is now Deane Road.

Atkinson's was taken over by Boardman’s United Breweries of Manchester in 1895. A full list of their pubs can be seen here.  Another Manchester brewery, Cornbrook’s, bought out Boardman’s in 1895 and they became part of the Bass Charrington empire in the 1960s. The Anchor, off Bradshawgate; the Griffin on Great Moor Street and the Dog and Partridge on Manor Street were also amongst Cornbrook’s tied estate.

Cornbrook's was the first brewery in the north-west to dispense tank beer. Large tanks were placed in pub cellars and beer was transported from the brewery in what looked like large petrol tankers. On arrival at the pub beer was then pumped from the vehicle to the tank. The system was manufactured by Porter Lancastrian, a company based for some time in Gaskell Street not far from the Swiss Hotel.

The Swiss became popular with sporting organisations. Like many pubs it had its own Angling Society as well as a bowling club. Bolton Cricket Club used to hold smoking concerts there and in December 1893 the local sports newspaper Cricket And Football Field (a Saturday sports paper in Bolton and the forerunner to The Buff) reported that the Blackburn Harriers were due to meet Bolton Harriers in a road race commencing from the Swiss Hotel.

The Swiss Hotel began its life as a beerhouse in the largely rural community of Johnson Fold. Its early years saw the area transformed from farmland to housing and industry. But by the 1960s a lot of those houses were coming up for a hundred years old. Plans were afoot to sweep away many of the streets from Brownlow Fold down as far as Higher Bridge Street – and with it the pubs.

The Swiss carried on until around 1970 when it was closed and demolished along with all the properties in the surrounding streets. New housing was built on the site and a number of the streets were re-named. Southern Street and Tyndall Street form what is now Kirkhope Drive, while Center Street became Centre Park Road.

The above image from 1964 above shows the final days of the old Brownlow Fold with the Swiss standing almost alone in the background while much of the surrounding housing has been demolished.

Kirkhope Drive (ex-Southern Street) on this image from May 2012 (copyright Google Street View). Centre Park Road runs off to the left.

Police and Public Notices – If the dog stolen from near the Swiss Hotel, Brownlow-fold last Thursday is not returned to 34 Derby Street immediately, legal proceedings will be taken – Bolton Evening News, 23 April 1872.

Derby Street, Brownlow Fold was renamed Darley Street when Halliwell was incorporated into the County Borough Of Bolton in 1877.

Salford Quarter Sessions – this day. John Walker of Little Bolton, for stealing a decanter from the Swiss Hotel, Brownlow Fold on 28 ult was sentenced to six months' imprisonment and two years' surveillance by the police. - Bolton Evening News, 9 July 1872.