The Red Lion Public House

The Red Lion Public House is a building of mixed origins, dating from the 17th century, with significant alterations in the 18th and 19th centuries, and later changes in the late 20th century. Originally a hotel and attached Oddfellows Hall, it now functions as a pub.

The Oddfellows Hall, located on the left-hand side, was built in the early to mid-19th century. It is constructed of Bargate rubble with red-brick dressings, rendered at the front, and has a Welsh slate roof. It is a single tall storey high, with four bays. The entrance in the second bay has stone steps leading to a recessed 20th-century door with a six-pane overlight. Sashes with glazing bars are set in reveals with stone sills, and there are two heraldic shields between the window openings. Boxed eaves top the building, and a hipped roof completes the structure.

The hotel range to the right is a more complex design. It incorporates a 17th-century timber-framed structure of two plus two bays, showing different phases of construction, with a fifth bay added to the right. Rear additions and refronting occurred in the early 19th century, and a further wing was added to the rear in the mid-19th century. The front of the hotel is pebble-dashed, while the rear wall is timber-framed with painted brick infill, with brick wings in Flemish bond, all with plain tile roofs. The road front has an entrance in the fourth bay with a 19th-century doorcase featuring pilasters and a corniced entablature. Wide 20th-century windows are on the ground floor, and the first floor has two small-paned casements to the left and two tripartite windows with 12-pane sashes flanked by four-pane sashes to the right, with a pub sign in an old architrave positioned between them. A dentilled boxed eaves runs across the top, with a wrought-iron pub sign projecting from the right corner. A hipped roof is present on the left, with a stack at the right end.

The rear of the hotel range features a square-panelled timber-framed wall. A small two-pane casement is visible on the first floor to the left, and a 16-pane side-sliding sash to the right. Moulded dentilled eaves are present, and there are three hipped gables. A short wing projecting from the left has a basket-arched doorway on the left and a tripartite window on the right (with a 12-pane sash flanked by four-pane sashes). This wing connects the main range to a parallel service range with an inserted door and window on the left bay and a wide window and door with header-brick arches on the right bay. The first floor has two small-pane casements.

The interior of the hotel range includes a cross-beam between bays four and five, displaying mortices in the soffit from a former end wall. There are also cross-beams between bays two and three, and bays one and two, which are chamfered with lambs tongue stops. A closed-string stair leads to the attic, with stick balusters and columnar newels. Architectural features include collared principal rafter trusses with butt purlins, staggered to bays one and two, and old rafters; the truncated remains of a former chimney are located at the rear between bays two and three.