The Old Red Lion, EC1

Official site of the Old Red Lion - www.oldredliontheatre.co.uk

Official site of the Old Red Lion - www.oldredliontheatre.co.uk

The Old Red Lion is a Theatre pub with regular plays occurring upstairs and there are pictures of actors on the walls in the main bar area, but the décor is quite sparse with horrible red painted walls. The front seating area by the windows that look out onto St John Street is screened of from the main open plan area and there are TVs for showing Sky Sports in each part. There is also a huge projector screen, but funnily enough this was not in use during my 23:00 visit on a Saturday night three or so weeks ago, although there was some random background music that was playing at an acceptable level for a Saturday night. The pub wasn’t very busy considering the location, but the limited seating was mostly taken up by the twenty-something crowd. Like all the other pubs in this area there is a late license and there were still people coming into the pub when I left just before midnight. The bar is stocked with plenty of draught options and the four hand pumps were drawing Abbot, Landlord, Doom Bar and Harveys Best. The Guinness was on good form and the service was quick and polite. There is a small enclosed area out the back that has some picnic tables and a BBQ. There is a large Red Lion mural hidden behind some small potted trees and also a very good painting of World Cup Willy is scratched into another wall. Apparently the first local historical reference to this pub was in 1828 when it was mentioned that Tom Paine wrote part one of the Rights of Man in here in 1791. I wasn’t that taken with this pub and it could certainly do with a lick of paint and maybe some new furniture. I think that there are far better options in this area and I cannot see myself returning in a hurry.