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Beer of the Week (w/e 14th September 2025) with Thuck Phat
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Detail Pages
Red Lion, Newport
Newport
NP20 1JH
Reviews (Current Rating Average: 5½ of 10) see review guidelines
Blue Scrumpy left this review about Red Lion
Heading up Stow Hill from the city centre, the Red Lion is a compact corner pub with high ceilings and a room which wraps around the bar in a kind of semi-circle. On our Sunday afternoon visit, 3 or 4 TVs were showing live cricket. There was a Newport County scarf above a fireplace to the right-hand side to continue the sporting theme.
The pub has bare boards and the unusual feature of 2 casks above the bar, one with Red written on it and the other reading Lion. Front windows have raised seating areas, whilst there was a pool table, dartboard and games machine off to the right-hand side. Music was playing, wifi is provided and children are allowed in. There were also a couple of picnic tables outside to the front.
There are 4 handpulls. Butty Bach is the regular cask ale. London Pride was a guest with the other handpulls unclipped. Ciders were Thatcher's Gold & Inch's.
This is a solid and traditional local that seems well liked by its patrons who were both young and old.
On 10th September 2025
- rating: 5
[User has posted 3232 recommendations about 3230 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Quinno _ left this review about Red Lion
Unpromising ex-Ushers pub (aren’t they all?). Inside is a simple locals boozer which has been knocked around which gives the interior a weird shape that dog leg. Tidy bar and back with two jumbo casks suspended from the ceiling. GBG listed with two ales on That You've Heard Of, in this case London Pride and Wye Valley Butty Bach, the latter of which managed to just pass muster (NBSS 3) despite there only being me and the landlord in here for the first 10 minutes - Newport is pretty quiet on a Sunday. Would I head back up the hill to do this one again? Unlikely.
On 10th May 2024
- rating: 6
[User has posted 5688 recommendations about 5669 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Will Larter left this review about The Red Lion
Six hand pumps but only two were on when Luton Town visited Newport County recently. The dozen or so Hatters fans in here before kick-off would certainly have been a boost to trade on what looked like a quiet night. It got even quieter just after 7pm when the lights went out. Power cut, we thought? No, just the appropriate atmosphere for the game of rugby union which had just kicked off on one of the TV screens.
There are numerous pictures, club shields and players' shirts dotted around the walls, though to be fair there are also pictures celebrating hunting and other miscellaneous aspects of Welsh life. If you're planning a visit, check the RU fixtures on TV if you want to be sure of the lights staying on during your visit.
This is otherwise a fairly basic local, the outstanding features, besides the very welcome coal fire, being the mirrored bar-back and what appeared to be original etched glass in the windows. Brains Reverend James and Fullers London Pride were the beers on offer, neither outstanding but OK. An unusual feature was the pair of barrels suspended from the ceiling above the bar. I tried not to look at them as I was ordering my drinks, because the word "precarious" definitely sprang to mind.
On 19th February 2011
- rating: 6
[User has posted 4430 recommendations about 4069 pubs]