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Walk down Alness Road in Whalley Range today and there’s little to suggest you’re passing one of Manchester’s most notorious musical landmarks.
It’s a quiet residential street now, punctuated by speed humps, the sort of place you’d never associate with all-night parties, punk revolutions or rock ’n’ roll excess. But tucked away on the corner of Wellington Road stands an unassuming detached house with a past so wild it became immortalised in song.
Clifton Grange Hotel or The Showbiz
Two legends: Phil Lynott and George Best
This was once the Clifton Grange Hotel: better known in the 1970s as The Showbiz, The Biz, or simply Phyllis’s, a legendary refuge for entertainers, footballers, criminals and musicians, run by the formidable Philomena Lynott, mother of Thin Lizzy frontman Phil Lynott.
Philomena Lynott moved from Dublin to Manchester in the 1940s, drawn by the city’s post-war rebuilding boom. After entering a relationship with Cecil Parris, she gave birth to Philip Lynott, who she heartbreakingly sent back to Dublin to be raised by her parents amid the prejudice surrounding illegitimacy and race at the time.
By 1966, Philomena, now with partner Dennis Keeley, took over the Clifton Grange, a hotel that had fallen on hard times. Despite having no experience in hospitality, she had a vision: to create a showbiz refuge, somewhere performers could live on their own terms. For instance, breakfast was at noon, not finished by 8am. If you missed that, you could make it yourself in the kitchen.
Which celebrities went to the Clifton Grange in the 70s
Step inside the Clifton Grange in the 1970s and you might be greeted by grass-skirted Māori dancers, female contortionists, magicians or ventriloquists. The bar was packed nightly with pop stars, cabaret performers, casino croupiers and just about every eccentric character Manchester had to offer.
By this point, the little boy Philomena had sent back to Dublin was now fronting a band called Thin Lizzy – and the hotel quickly became ground zero whenever he returned to Manchester.
Phil loved the place. He spent long summers there as a teenager, soaking up the chaos, characters and camaraderie that would later pour into his songwriting. Once Thin Lizzy found fame, his visits back north turned the Clifton Grange into something close to a shrine.
The parties were legendary.
Philomena, affectionately known as the “Fairy Godmother of the North West”, welcomed everyone. Her guest list reportedly included George Best, Alex Higgins, Coronation Street actors, police officers, burglars, sex workers and members of Manchester’s infamous Quality Street Gang.
Many believe that the gang would later inspire Thin Lizzy’s most famous anthem: The Boys Are Back In Town.
Punk history made in Whalley Range
One of the Clifton Grange’s most enduring stories came in 1976, following the Sex Pistols’ now-mythical gig at the Free Trade Hall – often described as the gig that changed music history.
With their reputation preceding them, the Pistols struggled to find anywhere willing to put them up for the night. Eventually, soaked through and out of options, they made their way to Whalley Range and knocked on Phyllis’s door.
She gave them a five-bedroom known as The Barracks. It’s one of those moments where Manchester history quietly turns a corner on an ordinary street.
Immortalised in song
Tragically, Phil Lynott’s rock ’n’ roll lifestyle caught up with him. He died in 1986, aged just 36, from heart failure and pneumonia linked to drug and alcohol dependency.
By then, Philomena had returned to Dublin, and the Clifton Grange had closed its doors as a hotel. But its legend was already secure, forever preserved on Thin Lizzy’s 1971 self-titled album in the track ‘Clifton Grange Hotel’, a love letter to the place, the people and, most of all, his mother.
Today, the former hotel is private housing. Most pass it without a second glance, unaware that this quiet corner of Whalley Range once sat at the centre of British music, football and counterculture.
But for those who know, the Clifton Grange remains one of Manchester’s great untold stories, proof that some of the city’s loudest legends were born in the most unlikely places.
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