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116, Foregate Street, Chester, Chester, CH1 2HH
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116, Foregate Street, Chester, Chester, CH1 2HH
Well-known theatre pub on one of the oldest sites in London, a pub here being first recorded in 1415; the present building dates from 1898. An ornate wooden and glass panelled screen partially cuts off what used to be a private saloon at the front. Board games are available. The pub also has a largescreen TV and can get busy on big sports occasions such as rugby matches. At the back is a patio drinking area. Pool is very popular. The long bar is separated by a most unusual engraved glass partition.
Historic Interest
Grade II listing:- Public house. Dated 1899. By Eedle and Myers for Charles Dickerson and John William North, victuallers. Ground-floor pub front of polished granite and stucco, brick upper floors of front elevation rendered in banded stucco rustication and pilasters divided by rubbed and finely cut red brick panels, some terracotta decoration; roof obscured by parapet. Pub occupies ground and 1st floors; upper floors residential. Free-Classical style with Neo-Jacobean and other Renaissance motifs. Four storeys; 3-window range including a narrower and canted far right bay, 2nd and 3rd storeys 2:2:1. Elaborate main entrance to far right canted bay, subsidiary entrances to other bays. Banded stucco and panelled pilasters dividing windows are carried up in successive orders from ground to parapet; storeys articulated horizontally by moulded stucco sill bands. 1st floor with elliptical and round-arched casement windows with fanlights: radiating stucco banding to heads and prominent keystones that rise to the 2nd floor sill band; pilaster shafts composed of terracotta lions. 2nd floor with round-arched architraved and keystoned casement windows with plain fanlights and 2nd floor cornice with egg and dart moulding. 8/1 architraved sashes to 3rd floor. Balustraded parapet with shaped brick name panel as gablet inscribed in Arts and Crafts lettering: 'THE OLD RED LION 1415 REBVILT 1899'; ball and pyramid finials. Elaborate relief-decoration of moulded brickwork below gablet, with 2 lions, initials ("D" & "N") and leaves. Ground-floor pub front of period: bays filled with original glazing and grained woodwork articulated by pilasters with polished red granite shafts, black granite bases and decorative stucco capitals. Deeply recessed segmental-arched main entrance with pair of original panelled doors with glazing and plain overlight flanked by 1/2 chamfered piers of same materials as pilasters; richly animated stucco relief with foliated scrolls and centre masque to shaped panel above entrance. Other bays with identical pairs of original doors with glazing, overlights and plain glazed windows of original design; painted mirrored glass fascia reading: 'CHARRINGTON OLD RED LION'. Wrought-iron bracketed wall lanterns to ground-floor pilasters. INTERIOR: : much of the original interior survives including barback and division screens.
One star - A pub interior of special national historic interest
Listed status: II
The main interest of this pub, rebuilt in 1899 by prolific pub architects Eedle & Myers, is a tall wood and glass screen – the sort of thing that was so common in the days of compartmentalised pubs but now so very rare. An old picture on the rear wall shows how it was placed originally: it created a larger front room than today. The counter seems interwar with later panels added to the front. The bar back towards the front of the pub could be interwar but even perhaps of the 1950s. Along the top the words ‘Ales & Stout’, ‘Charrington’, and ‘Spirits’ can be made out. On the first floor is the Old Red Lion Theatre (founded 1979), so this is one of those London institutions, a theatre-pub: its little box office is located at the rear of the main bar.
Dated 1899. By Eedle and Myers for Charles Dickerson and John William North, victuallers. Four-storey of brick with polished granite on the ground floor and at the top a gablet inscribed in Arts and Crafts lettering: 'THE OLD RED LION 1415 REBVILT 1899' and below elaborate relief-decoration with 2 lions, initials ("D" & "N") and leaves.
The right hand door leads into a small bar, which used to be a private saloon, created by a wonderful and rare three-quarter-height wooden and glass panelled screen. There are seven bays from near the left hand door with deep cut glazed panels, the fifth panel being a door, and another two on the return with an odd shaped door near the bar counter. The bar counter looks inter-war with its ply panelled front â there is no bar back as such here.
The main bar accessed down the left side âpassageâ created by the screen has another similar counter and the mirrored bar back also looks inter-war but most of the lower shelving is lost to fridges. Good lincrusta ceiling painted red is held up by a central iron column with capital painted gold. Note the brass âPushâ on the door to the gents.
The Old Red Lion Theatre situated on the first floor first and seating 60 opened its doors in 1979 and is now one of London's oldest and most loved Fringe theatre venues. Note the small âBox Officeâ at the rear of the main bar â performances are either at 7.30pm or 7.30 and 9pm with matinees on Sat and Sun at 3.00pm. On the front of the pub is a Blue Plaque stating âOn this site in 1791 Thomas Paine wrote part of âRights of Man (Part Two)â.
Old Red Lion, London
Garden
Disabled Access
Events
Games
Separate Bar
Smoking
Real Ale
Real Heritage Pub
LocAle
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