Red Lion Square is a smallsquare inHolborn, London.[1] The square was laid out in 1684 byNicholas Barbon,[2] taking its name from the Red Lion Inn.[1] According to some sources, the bodies of threeregicides—Oliver Cromwell,John Bradshaw andHenry Ireton—were placed in a pit on the site of the square.[3]
By 1720, it was a fashionable part of London: the eminent judge SirBernard Hale was a resident of Red Lion Square. The square was "beautified" pursuant to a 1737 Act of Parliament.[4] In the 1860s, on the other hand, it had clearly become decidedly unfashionable: the writerAnthony Trollope in his novelOrley Farm (1862) humorously reassures his readers that one of his characters is perfectly respectable, despite living in Red Lion Square. TheMetropolitan Public Gardens Association's landscape gardenerFanny Wilkinson laid it out as a public garden in 1885, and, in 1894, the trustees of the square passed the freehold to the MPGA, which, in turn, passed it to theLondon County Council free of cost.[5]
A notable resident of the square wasJohn Harrison, the world-renowned inventor of the marine chronometer, who lived at number 12, where he died in 1776. There is a blue plaque dedicated to him on the corner of Summit House.
At No. 3, in 1826,Charles Lamb was painted by Henry Mayer. At No 17,Dante Gabriel Rossetti lived in 1851. Also at No 17,William Morris,Edward Burne-Jones andRichard Watson Dixon lived from 1856 to 1859. No. 8 was a decorators shop run by Morris, Burne-Jones and others from 1860 to 1865. No. 31 was the home ofF. D. Maurice.[6]
At 35 St. George's Mansions in the square, suffragette sistersIrene andHilda Dallas had lived and had evaded the1911 census in protest that women did not have a right to vote.[7]
The centre-piece of the garden today is a statue byIan Walters ofFenner Brockway, which was installed in 1986. There is also a memorial bust ofBertrand Russell.[8]Conway Hall opens on to the square.
The square today is home to theRoyal College of Anaesthetists.Lamb's Conduit Street is nearby and the nearest underground station isHolborn.
TheFaculty of Medical Leadership and Management moved to Red Lion Square in 2019.
The first headquarters of Marshall, Faulkner & Co, which was founded byWilliam Morris, was at 8 Red Lion Square.
At No 4 Parton Street, a cul-de-sac off the square subsequently obliterated by St Martin's College of Art inSouthampton Row (laterCentral Saint Martins), a group of young writers, includingDylan Thomas,George Barker,David Gascoyne andJohn Pudney, gathered about the bookshop run by David Archer.[9]
On 15 June 1974 a meeting by theNational Front in Conway Hall resulted in a protest by anti-fascist groups. The followingdisorder and police action left one student—Kevin Gately from theUniversity of Warwick—dead.[10]
51°31′9″N0°7′8″W / 51.51917°N 0.11889°W /51.51917; -0.11889