For many years, the triangular plot in front of The Red Lion was the landlord’s garden. It was also a traffic bottleneck, ‘Bitterne Fork’, where the rural High Street (now Bitterne Road) was joined by a country lane (Bursledon Road). The V-shaped fork has long been replaced by a pedestrian precinct. The Red Lion remains, built in the 1860s, in front of an earlier pub of the same name. The original Red Lion, from the 1830s, was a coaching inn.

A plaque documenting the history of The Red Lion

The plaque reads: This long-standing public house was built in the 1860s, in front of an earlier pub of the same name. The original Red Lion, built in the 1830s, was a coaching inn on the route to Chichester.

The much-changed area at the front of the present pub was the landlord’s garden, situated where the rural High Street (now Bitterne Road) was joined by a county lane, at a traffic bottleneck known as Bitterne Fork.

The stone lion was erected here on 23 June 1987. Originally, the eye-catching sculpture looked out over Bitterne from the top of the nearby, but now long-gone, Lion Place. It has since become the symbol of the town.

These premises were refurbished by J D Wetherspoon and opened in March 2017

Sketches of the stone lion – the symbol of the town

Original hand sketches depicting The Church of the Holy Saviour, Bitterne

A photograph of this site, originally constructed in the 1840s, comprising four small shops with accommodation above

An illustration depicting Southampton of the past

External photograph of the building – main entrance