Southern Cemetery

Southern cemetery is a municipal cemetery in the south area of Manchester where over 360,000 burials have taken place since it opened in 1879. It covers a total area of 55 hectares, contains over 118,000 graves along with a number of historic buildings.

The main entrance to the cemetery is on Barlow Moor Road in Chorlton-cum-Hardy within 5 miles of Manchester City Centre and 2 miles from the M56 motorway to the south.

It has attractive grounds and buildings offering a tranquil, safe and well maintained green open space in an urban community where the people of south Manchester and beyond can visit and lay to rest loved ones.

Regular guided history tours take in the cemetery with many prominent people buried within its grounds, along with memorials to commemorate the servicemen who lost their lives during the First and Second World Wars. It also contains other commemorative memorials and graves including one for the 1980 Tenerife air disaster. In addition to this there are a number of Grade II listed buildings and a diverse range of memorial stones that reflect the cemeteries 140 year history.

It has an active community led 'Friends of' Group who are influential in the management and maintenance of the cemetery and are actively involved in implementing improvements and engaging people of all ages through community events.