The Red Lion Public House

The Red Lion Public House was built in 1901-2 by James & Lister Lea for the Holt Brewery Company. It is a brick and terracotta building with a Welsh slate roof and end stacks. The building is three storeys high and constructed in a Free Renaissance style. The pink terracotta ground floor features entrances at each end and in the centre, each with a shallow canopy supported by human torso figures. The windows above these entrances are set within shallow 3-centred arches. The upper floors are faced in buff terracotta. The first floor incorporates six traceried windows of varying sizes, with engaged colonettes and an elaborate Jacobean-style frieze. A polygonal corner tower rises above the main structure, featuring an attic window and a cupola. Two gabled attic windows, different in size and detail, are also present.

Inside, the long public bar runs along the road, with further bars to the right and behind. A spacious staircase hall is located in the right-hand part of the building. The public bar is decorated with blue and yellow Minton tiling on the walls, and a panelled ceiling. A particularly fine bar back combines mirror glass and mahogany joinery, embellished with gilded and painted lettering. The bar front itself is painted and detailed in a Neo-Renaissance style, with fixed seating. A door leads to a smoke room with etched and gilded glass. This room is completely tiled, featuring framed coloured lithographs of girls in pastoral settings and fixed seating. The coffee room has a more restrained design with polished wooden panelling extending to the ceiling, fixed seats equipped with bell pushes, and framed engravings of dogs and narrative paintings. An oval mirror is positioned above the fireplace. The staircase hall is entirely tiled, repeating the colours found in the public bar. The staircase itself features ornately detailed newel posts, turned balusters, and coloured glass dating from 1902. The Red Lion is notable for its unusual richness and completeness, with interior detailing comparable to the finest examples nationally.