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In Nottingham
alone there are three Red Lion public houses. On Alfreton Road
near Canning Circus, at Cinderhill and at Bulwell not to mention
the ones which lurk about in the surrounding villages.
So why is
the Red Lion so popular? It helps that it has more than one
derivation and both of these are heraldic. Heraldry plays a
great part in pub names and here it is crossed with other popular
source names, patriotism and loyalty.
John of
Gaunt was one of the most powerful men in fourteenth century
England. He was the fourth son of King Edward III and claimed
full power as Viceroy when his father became senile. John’s
heraldic devise was a red lion.
Pub owners
have always realised the sense in naming their house after officialdom
showing their loyalty to their bosses and so John’s red
lion was displayed outside many buildings.
The Red
Lion received a further boost when James I acceded to the throne
of England. Being a Scot (remember, he was already King James
VI of Scotland) he felt the diplomatic need to order the display
of the red lion of Scotland in public places all over England
to show who was boss; obviously not a man to bear a historic
grudge. This would have convinced many a publican a red lion
hanging outside his pub was a good idea.
Of course
neither of these two derivations may be behind your favourite
Red Lion. It is a possibility that a local landowner or dignitary
may have had a red lion as part of his heraldic arms and the
pub remembers that.
With the
high instance of red lions, more than one can appear in one
place (as we have seen with Nottingham), so landlords sometimes
make little additions to the names of their establishments with
the hope the intending imbiber can find his/her mates in the
right Red Lion.
Normally the addition of "old " or "new"
will suffice but there is a Lower Red Lion in St Albans, Hertfordshire.
Oddly the Upper Red Lion is in Herne, Kent so we can safely
say these two are not related (if they are, the people of the
South go on some big pub crawls).
And Highgate,
London has the Red Lion & Sun. This is a portmanteau name
and I think we will discuss this some other time.
Mark
Andrew Pardoe 2001
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