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The Old Red Lion, Holborn, WC1

72 High Holborn
WC1
WC1V 6LS
Phone: 02074051748

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Reviews (Current Rating Average: of 10) Add Review see review guidelines


Please Note: This review is over a year old.


Bucking Fastard left this review about The Old Red Lion

The exterior is the best bit with a traditional street corner feel, an impressive brass railing running below the windows and an upper windows frieze advertising what libations you could order insidde.
The apex door open into a stripped out interior with a drinking shelf running around the periphery with bar stools.The rest of the dark wooden floor is for vertical drinking,while a rear staircase leads to the Cromwell Bar,unvisited by me but bookable for an event.The mirrored bar back is decent while the 7 handpumps splits into 3 and 4 were offering on my trip Black Sheep Bitter,GK Abbott,TT Landlord and St Austell Tribute (NBSS 1.5).You will find that ale line up at hundreds of London pubs ,so it's nothing out of the ordinary which also sums up my feelings about this pub.

On 29th February 2020 - rating: 6
[User has posted 2709 recommendations about 2709 pubs]


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Graham Coombs left this review about The Old Red Lion

A small traditional corner pub with a well-run, efficient feel and some sensible beers despite being a Greene King house. The ground floor bar is mainly for vertical drinking, with a few stools, and another bar is signed upstairs. Draught beers at time of visit were TT Landlord, Black Sheep Best Bitter, Deuchars IPA and Wadworths 6X plus IPA and Abbot of course.

On 23rd November 2019 - rating: 7
[User has posted 3322 recommendations about 3259 pubs]


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hondo . left this review about The Old Red Lion

Small Greene King pub on a corner with a nice old exterior. Didn't visit the upstairs bar. 6 real ale taps 5 on.

On 25th October 2018 - no rating submitted
[User has posted 2883 recommendations about 2820 pubs]


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Tris C left this review about The Old Red Lion

This pub was established as The Red Lion in the 16th century and rebuilt in 1899. I haven't been here for a good 25 years so don't remember it well. It's a Greene King outlet as is almost everything in central London. It's very small with no tables, just window stools with a second bar upstairs, not visited. It's very gloomy with two chandeliers and is bare boarded. Muted music played and no TVs were in evidence.
Ales: GK's Abbot and IPA, Timothy Taylor's Landlord and Darwin's Origin at a steep £2.20 a half which was ok.

I can't see any special reason to return, perhaps that's why I hadn't been back for so long.

On 7th May 2016 - rating: 4
[User has posted 1956 recommendations about 1923 pubs]


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Just a quick pint, then I'm off left this review about The Old Red Lion

Don't be put off by the large neon Green King sign despoiling the exterior, this is a decent pub serving well-kept beer. Total of seven handpumps spread along the bar counter, offering IPA (£4.00) and Abbot plus TT Landlord, Otter Ale and Bath Ales Gem as genuine guest ales on my latest visit. The interior decor, including the coloured glass windows, is fairly traditional but - as a typical City vertical drinking establishment - seating is very limited. Also has Cromwell's Bar upstairs (not visited). I like this place, and it's well worth a try if you are in the High Holborn area.

On 25th May 2014 - rating: 8
[User has posted 8066 recommendations about 8066 pubs]


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Steve of N21 left this review about The Old Red Lion

A fine old Victorian pub usually well decorated with hanging baskets and is a welcome sight on High Holborn amongst all the glass fronted shops and restaurants. It’s well described by John below so not much more to say except to concur that for my recent visit the so called guest beer was another from the Bury St Edmunds brewed range, so some disappointment that the beer choice seems to have gone backwards in recent months.
However the target demographic for the Old Red Lion is clearly the lunchtime and after work local office crowd when I am sure its vertical drinking orientated downstairs space and then more comfortable upstairs room suits the needs of those drinking or/and eating during the week days.
But for me popping in for a pre comedy club pint on an early Saturday afternoon the beer choice meant it wasn’t long before I was heading over the road to the The Penderel's Oak to see if something more interesting was on.

On 12th April 2012 - rating: 6
[User has posted 2094 recommendations about 1985 pubs]


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John Bonser left this review about The Old Red Lion

Occupying a street corner position on High Holborn is The Old Red Lion, a small traditional pub dating back to the Victorian era. On the wall outside, we see a plaque telling us that, in September 1658, Oliver Cromwell’s body lay in the cellar for several days prior to dismemberment.

The interior resembles somewhat a typical City pub (although we are, of course, now outside The City of London boundary) with much woodwork, including a rather ornate bar back, but largely stripped out of furniture to provide more space for stand up drinking, with a few bar stools and a wooden ledge under the large, tall windows to accommodate beer glasses. Upstairs, on the first floor, is Cromwell’s Bar, which provides additional space and also caters for the lunchtime food trade.

Wall decoration includes a few prints of old London scenes and, notably, at the top of the staircase, is a framed football photo which, although unlabelled would appear to be the notorious Maradona “Hand of God” goal. On its own, and with no other sporting photos in sight, I wonder if we have a Scottish landlord with a gloating sense of humour.

It’s a Greene King pub which, on previous visits, has usually been offering several non-GK guest beers ( eg – Bath Ales Gem ). However, on my most recent visit, only Greene King’s IPA, Abbot and Reserve were on draught, plus Howells Frosty Bells, which, as I later learnt, is brewed by Belhaven, so I’m not counting it as a guest beer.

This is a reasonable pub, but its smallness and consequent lack of comfort and seating means it’s not a pub for a long stay

On 18th January 2012 - rating: 6
[User has posted 560 recommendations about 560 pubs]


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Old Blue left this review about The Old Red Lion

This Greene King house unusually seems to serve well looked-after ales from others’ stables as well as its own. As others have said, the exterior looks Victorian, and the ground floor interior is fairly minimalistic with white walls and dark wood, bar stools round the perimeter for sitting up to a ledge beneath the windows. The upstairs room is known as ‘Cromwell’s Bar’ for some reason.

Service was friendly and efficient today, and ales on offer from seven hand pulls were GK IPA (twice), OSH, Abbott, Hooky Bitter, Batemans Salem Porter, and Westgate Gangly Ghoul, the last two presumably for Halloween. Should you wish to eat here, there is a fairly standard pub menu with mains at around £6.50-£8.25.

I found this a comfortable place to stop off and certainly one of the best GK pubs I’ve visited in some time.

On 17th October 2011 - rating: 7
[User has posted 271 recommendations about 270 pubs]


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Nick Davies left this review about The Old Red Lion

Routine Victorian street corner London pub which makes a perfectly good job of providing after-work refreshment for the many local office workers round here. Pity it's Greene King and there are a couple of better places close by if you poke around the back streets but it's fine if you are along here and in need of a quick one or somewhere to meet that's easy to find.

On 13th October 2010 - rating: 6
[User has posted 567 recommendations about 559 pubs]


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Rex Rattus left this review about The Old Red Lion

This looks like a Victorian era pub, but now stripped out with little or no original features left. The bar back looks old, but nobody behind the bar knew anything about it. It's a Greene King house, with the usual ales on of course, but they also had Bath Brewery Gem, which was excellent. Not cheap at £3.30 a pint, but I would rather pay this for an excellent pint rather than 50p less for an average pint. It's bare-boarded downstairs, with no seating other than stools beside ledges round the sides of the pub. They advertised table seating upstairs, but I did not venture there. It's a fair enough pub for a swift pint or two, especially if they have guest ales of the standard of Bath's Gem, but not somewhere that I should want to spend an evening.

On 9th April 2009 - rating: 6
[User has posted 2606 recommendations about 2520 pubs]

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