The Old Red Lion
Why is it significant?
The Old Red Lion at 42 Kennington Park Road in London is a 1933 pub built in the Brewers' Tudor style to mimic a medieval inn. Although a tavern named the Red Lion has occupied the site since around 1750, brewery Hoare and Company hired architect Sydney Clark to rebuild it for £7,107. Its mock-Tudor facade features red lion brackets and an intact interwar interior.
Key Facts
| Place | The Old Red Lion |
|---|---|
| Address | 42 Kennington Park Road, London SE11 4RS |
| Geo Coordinates | 51.48944, -0.10507 |
| Audio Duration | ~3 min |
| Part of Walk | Elephant & Castle to Kennington: Stories Along Stane Street |
| Generated | Generated |
What to look for?
- A tavern named the Red Lion has stood at 42 Kennington Park Road in London since around 1750.
- London brewery Hoare and Company hired architect Sydney Clark to rebuild The Old Red Lion in 1933 for £7,107.
- Architect Sydney Clark designed The Old Red Lion in the Brewers' Tudor style featuring hand-carved red lion brackets.
- The Old Red Lion includes a small one-story annex built in 1933 as a dedicated off-licence shop.
Photo: Google
Why was The Old Red Lion in London rebuilt in the mock-Tudor style in 1933?
Look closely at forty-two Kennington Park Road. At first glance, you might think you are staring at a cozy, timber-framed inn straight out of Tudor England, transported from a countryside village into the middle of London. With its steep gables, dark wooden beams, and clustered red-brick chimney stacks, it looks like a place where sixteenth-century travelers might have hitched their horses after a long journey. But this medieval facade is actually a brilliant piece of interwar architectural illusion, built in nineteen thirty-three! The story of this corner, however, goes back much further. A tavern named the Red Lion has stood on this exact plot of land since around seventeen fifty. For nearly two hundred years, it served as a lively roadside stop for coach drivers, farm hands, and travelers moving along the busy road heading south toward Surrey. By the nineteen thirties, the original eighteenth-century building was showing its age. At the same time, British brewing companies were undergoing a quiet revolution. Breweries wanted to distance themselves from the chaotic, rowdy image of Victorian gin palaces and dark drinking dens. They aimed to transform pubs into respectable, family-friendly social hubs that offered warmth, comfort, and a touch of nostalgic English charm. To achieve this, London brewers Hoare and Company hired architect Sydney Clark to completely rebuild the tavern in nineteen thirty-three at a cost of seven thousand one hundred and seven pounds. Clark was a master of what became known as Brewers' Tudor, an architectural style that deliberately mimicked Elizabethan and Jacobean inns with dramatic timbering and decorative gables. Take a moment to admire the exterior details. Look right beneath the upper windows and hanging sign, and you will see hand-carved wooden brackets holding up the upper story. If you inspect them carefully, can you spot what animal they represent? Those are little lion-shaped brackets, painted bright red in honor of the pub's name! To the right, you can also see a small one-story annex built into the design. That was originally a dedicated off-licence shop, allowing local residents to buy bottled beer to take home without ever setting foot inside the public drinking rooms. If you step inside, you will find one of the most remarkably preserved interwar pub interiors in all of South London. Two cozy drinking rooms surround a central wooden bar counter, joined by low archways and dark panelled walls that create an atmosphere of quiet, timeless warmth.