Red Lion Hotel the Red Lion Hotel

The Red Lion Hotel is a complex of buildings dating back to the 16th century, with significant additions and alterations from the 18th and 19th centuries. The main portion of No. 4 Milford Street presents an early 19th-century facade constructed of stucco over a raised plinth. It is three stories high, featuring a raised string course above the ground-floor windows and a moulded cornice above the first and second floors. The parapet is plain. A large arched entrance to a courtyard is positioned to the right of the center, framed by panelled pilasters and large scroll brackets supporting a frieze and projecting over the main cornice. The archway, two stories high, contains contemporary panelled double doors with iron gates featuring circular bars and curved heads. A single sash window with four panes is situated above the archway, flanked by scrollwork details. Upper-floor windows have Venetian shutters. Ground-floor windows are three-light units with bolection molding, frieze, and cornices, all within architrave surrounds. This fronting obscures an earlier structure of 16th-century origin.

Within the courtyard, earlier ranges have been significantly altered, particularly on the ground floor. The west range, two stories high, was recased in the early 19th century. It has five flush-framed sash windows on the first floor, with altered windows and doors on the ground floor. The south range, dating to the late 17th/early 18th century, shows alterations and a refronting of an earlier structure with an overhang. It is two stories tall with a half-hipped roof covered in old tiles and features painted brickwork on the first floor, accented by plain wood pilasters with volute profiles between the windows. It has altered two-light leaded casements and sashes, flush-framed. The ground floor has been altered with leaded windows, and a projecting gabled section with applied timber framing was added to the southwest corner. The east range features remains of a former gallery, now enclosed, and two 19th-century gabled dormers.

Interior features include parts of the original timber frame with wall posts and braces, remnants of the overhang with post and bracket construction, and remains of partition walls on the first floor. Nos. 8 and 10 Milford Street, formerly separate buildings, are now incorporated into the hotel and exhibit an early 19th-century front with stucco on the ground floor and slate-hung gables on the first floor. The Brown Street front, dating to the 18th century and subsequently altered, is stuccoed with a new pantile roof, brick eaves, three irregular 19th-century casements on the first floor, and later four-light casements on the ground floor. An arched doorway has a rusticated stucco surround with a keystone. The buildings form a group with Nos. 1 and 3 Catherine Street.