Red Lion Square

Coordinates: 51°31′8″N 0°7′8″W / 51.51889°N 0.11889°W

Statue of Fenner Brockway in west entrance of Red Lion Square

Red Lion Square is a small square on the boundary of Bloomsbury and Holborn in London.[1] The square was laid out in 1684 by Nicholas Barbon,[2] taking its name from the Red Lion Inn.[1] According to some sources the bodies of three regicides - Oliver Cromwell, John Bradshaw and Henry Ireton - were placed in a pit on the site of the Square.[3] The area subsequently gained the reputation of being haunted by their three ghosts.[4]

By 1720 it was a fashionable part of London: the eminent judge Bernard Hale was a resident of Red Lion Square. In the 1860s, on the other hand, it had clearly become decidedly unfashionable: the writer Anthony Trollope in his novel Orley Farm (1862) humorously reassures his readers that one of his characters is perfectly respectable, despite living in Red Lion Square.

The centre-piece of the garden today is a statue by Ian Walters of Fenner Brockway, which was installed in 1986. There is also a memorial bust of Bertrand Russell.[5] Conway Hall—which is the home of the South Place Ethical Society and the National Secular Society—opens on to the Square. On 15 June 1974 a meeting by the National Front in Conway Hall resulted in a protest by anti-fascist groups. The following disorder and police action left one student - Kevin Gately from the University of Warwick - dead.[6]

The square today is home to the Royal College of Anaesthetists and the College of Emergency Medicine. Lamb's Conduit Street is nearby and the nearest underground station is Holborn.

The first headquarters of the Marshall, Faulkner & Co, which was founded by William Morris, was at 8 Red Lion Square.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Besant 2009, p. 26.
  2. ↑ UCL Bloomsbury Project
  3. ↑ British History Online Old and New London Volume 4, Edward Walford (1878)
  4. ↑ "Red Lion Square - Mysterious Britain & Ireland". Mysterious Britain & Ireland. Retrieved 21 August 2014.
  5. ↑ "Bertrand Russell Memorial". Mind 353: 320. 1980.
  6. ↑ "On this day 1974: Man dies in race rally clashes". BBC Online. 15 June 1974. Retrieved 4 February 2011.

References

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