Southern Cemetery, Manchester

Southern Cemetery is a large municipal cemetery in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester, England, 3 miles (4.8 km) south of the city centre. It opened in 1879 and is owned and administered by Manchester City Council. It is the largest municipal cemetery in the United Kingdom and the second largest in Europe.

Manchester Southern Cemetery originally occupied a 100-acre (40 ha) plot of land, in what was then Withington, that cost Manchester Corporation £38,340 in 1872. Its cemetery buildings were designed by architect H. J. Paull and its layout attributed to the city surveyor, James Gascoigne Lynde. The cemetery opened on 9 October 1879 and had mortuary chapels for Anglicans, Nonconformists, and Roman Catholics linked by an elliptical drive and a Jewish chapel at the west corner of the site. The original cemetery is registered by English Heritage in the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens for its historic interest and the mortuary chapels and other structures are listed buildings. The site was expanded by the purchase of 90 acres (36 ha) on the opposite side of Nell Lane in 1926, the first section of which opened in 1943. Some of the 1926 purchase has been developed for housing and some is occupied by allotments.

The main area of the cemetery is located to the north of Barlow Moor Road and to the west of the A5103 Princess Road; its northwards extension is on Nell Lane bought by the council in 1926. Its layout complements the original cemetery. A war memorial commemorates Allied servicemen who died in the World Wars.

In 2009, in what was described as a racially motivated attack, up to 20 Muslim graves were vandalised.

The grade II listed registrar's office near the entrance gateway was built in 1879 in the neo-Gothic style in sandstone with slate roofs. Three service chapels are located in Southern Cemetery, only one of which is currently used for funeral services. The remaining two chapels are semi-derelict.

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