Red Lion Inn | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Location | Southampton |
Coordinates | 50°53′56″N 1°24′13″W / 50.898952°N 1.403493°W |
OS grid reference | SU 42045 11222 |
Area | Hampshire |
Built | late 15th Century |
Listed Building – Grade II* | |
Official name | Red Lion Inn including medieval vault |
Designated | 14 Jul 1953 |
Reference no. | 1092055 |
The Red Lion Inn is a Grade II* listed pub, built in the late 15th/early 16th century, at 55 High Street, Southampton, Hampshire SO14 2NS.[1] It is on the Campaign for Real Ale's National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors.[2]
The half-timbered room known as the court room was the site of the trial of the conspirators in the Southampton Plot. This appears to be a local legend. The trial took place in 1415, about 75 years before the foundation of this building, and there is no documentary evidence from 1415 that would locate it here. In any case, the plotters were imprisoned in the castle and it is unlikely that they were moved down the High Street for a trial in an inn when the castle afforded ample facilities. A mournful procession of ghosts reportedly sighted leaving from the inn has been linked to the plotters.[3][4][5][6]
It has been claimed that the inn itself is haunted by a barmaid, described as being in her sixties and only visible above the knees, who reportedly drifts through the bar area.[4][5][6]
During his exile after 1852, Juan Manuel de Rosas, the former governor of Buenos Aires, used to frequent the place.
References
- ^ Historic England, "Red Lion Inn, Southampton (1092055)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 20 August 2014
- ^ Brandwood, Geoff (2013). Britain's best real heritage pubs. St. Albans: CAMRA. pp. 44–45. ISBN 9781852493042.
- ^ "Ghost of City's Past". Daily Echo. 31 October 2002.
- ^ a b Legg, Penny (2011). Haunted Southampton. The History Press. ISBN 9780752455198.
- ^ a b Legg, Penny (2013). Bloody British History Southampton. The History Press. ISBN 9780752471105.
- ^ a b Scanlan, David (2009). Paranormal Hampshire. Amberley Publishing. ISBN 978-1848682573.