Old Red Lion, Holborn

{{Short description|Historic London pub}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2017}}

{{Use British English|date=December 2016}}

File:Old Red Lyon Public House, London WC1 - geograph.org.uk - 1246536.jpg

The Old Red Lion is a pub at 72 High Holborn on the corner with Red Lion Street, Holborn, London.

The pub was established by the sixteenth century, and was rebuilt in its present form in 1899,{{cite web|url=http://pubshistory.com/LondonPubs/Holborn/RedLionHolborn.shtml |title=Old Red Lion, 72 High Holborn, Holborn WC1 |website=Pubshistory.com |date=3 April 2015 |access-date=20 February 2016}} and retains its original Victorian character.{{cite web|url=http://londonist.com/pubs/the-old-red-lion-2 |title=Old Red Lion |website=Londonist.com |access-date=20 February 2016}}

The Red Lyon was the most important inn in Holborn, and Red Lion Street and Red Lion Square are named after it.{{cite web|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/old-new-london/vol4/pp545-553 |title=Red Lion Square and neighbourhood | British History Online |website=British-history.ac.uk |date=15 February 2016 |access-date=20 February 2016}}

According to legend, in 1660, King Charles II had the bodies of Oliver Cromwell and his fellow Roundheads John Bradshaw and Henry Ireton exhumed to stage an execution of their corpses, and the bodies were stored overnight in the pub's yard en route to the gallows at Tyburn.{{cite book|author=Peter Underwood|title=Haunted London|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=42-IAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT51|access-date=19 February 2016|date=11 May 2013|publisher=Amberley Publishing Limited|isbn=978-1-4456-2859-2|page=51}}{{cite book|author=Edward Sullivan|title=Evening Standard London Pub Bar Guide 1999 S S Int|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fSnLRmGZzIEC&pg=PT146|access-date=19 February 2016|date=1 January 2000|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=978-0-684-86840-0|page=146}} The room upstairs is named the Cromwell Bar.

In 1621, the innkeeper of the Red Lion was indicted for his extortionate prices under statutes of 1389 (13 Rich 2 c.8) and 1402 (4 Hen 4 c.25). He was selling oats at 2s 8d a bushel, a mark-up of around 60% on the market price.Johnson's Case (1621) Cro. Jac. 610.Graham McBain, 'Abolishing the strict liability of hotelkeepers', Journal of Business Law (2006) 705