You’ll find that every area in London has its favourite boozer. It comes from the days when London was a series of villages so that ‘the local’ was an important meeting place.
Here in Islington, probably the coolest borough in the capital, The Old Red Lion was a firm favourite.
Built in 1515 when the local area was open countryside and St John Street was just a country lane, herded cows being the main traffic.
In the late 18th century, the lane became notorious for highwaymen. Sounds almost romantic now, but must have been pretty nasty for travellers in the day.
It was rebuilt in 1899 adding two exits onto different streets. This gave the pub the nickname “the In and Out”, since taxi passengers could avoid paying their fare by entering through one door and disappearing through the other. On behalf of London’s black cab drivers, a practice not to be encouraged!
Was made a theatre in 1979 and after being threatened with closure in the late 90’s it is now a listed building and its future hopefully secure.
A bizarre fact? It is the main pub for the ‘Capital Canaries’ the official London fan club for Norwich City Football club and screens all their matches.