The Red Lion, Fareham

Although there is no way of knowing exactly how long ago the Red Lion came into being there is reference to the Red Lion in the 1736 Will of Thomas Eyre. In the Archives of The Hampshire County Council Records Office there is reference to Quarter Sessions dated 1765-1838 of Justices of the Peace swearing that they could qualify for the position as a Justice, held in the Red Lion. The building which is Grade II listed is quoted as an:

18th century, stuccoed facade with parapet curved up in centre. Re-tiled roof. 2 storeys and 4 dormers. 4 windows, sashes with glazing bars and early c19 casements with cambered head linings. 2 bays on ground and 1st floor with slate roofs. Semi-circular porch. Behind hotel are the former Assembly Rooms, which have been converted into bedrooms.

The Red Lion Inn stood in the centre of what was the busiest part of Fareham at the junction of North Street and West Street. Toward the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th Fareham was little better than a village of small old houses and cottages, many of them thatched and having barns. Cart-horses, the main source of transporting goods were a common feature in the streets as were the carrier’s carts, farm wagons, traps and horse drawn carriages. Horses were shod at the blacksmith’s busy forges, one in Adelaide Place, and one in Union Street. The High Street [formally North Street] became a busy street, occupied by gentry and non-gentry for tucked behind the big houses were cottages reached by drokes [walled passageways] from the street. At one time there were no fewer than 35 business premises listed in the High Street which included shoemakers and dressmakers, a butcher, a fishmonger, baker, sweet shop, a cycle store, furniture store, and a drapery shop. Union Street opposite the hotel was a busy place in other ways, with its brothels, gin palaces, ale and beerhouses it gained the reputation as the ‘Red Light’ district. It was good hunting ground for the Navy Press Gangs which roamed the area, looking for likely candidates for naval service. Even so there were other businesses in Union Street such as Blacksmiths, a Boot & Shoemaker, a Grocer and Baker, an Umbrella repairer, and a Painter & Glazier.

With the introduction of Stage Coaches in the mid 18th century the Red Lion became a prosperous coaching Inn; providing accommodation and refreshment for the traveller and the teams of coach horses.

The Stage coach travelled at about 4 miles per hour carried its richer passengers inside the coach while the poorer travellers stood in a basket at the rear. There was the occasional accident one of which was reported in the Hants Chronicle of 1831 in which the Red Lion inn is mentioned.

Dreadful Accident….On Saturday evening last, on the London to Gosport Coach on its way down, stopping opposite to the Kings Arms Inn at Fareham, Henry Harris (brother to Mr Harris of the Red Lion Inn) went to assist the coachman in taking out some parcels from the hind boot. At this moment a mare, which had previously taken fright at the top of the High Street, and had thrown her rider Mr. Hyslop jnr., son of the proprietors, came furiously round the corner, and it being extremely dark, is supposed not to have seen the coach and ran with all force against poor Harris who was killed on the spot, the handle of the boot door burying itself in his head. The mare was nearly killed and the person who was thrown from her, so much injured that he lies in a very precarious state. Harris has left a wife and nine children. Among those who witnessed the accident was Thomas Heath of Gosport, who occasionally drove the coach but was then returning from Farnham as an outside passenger, his wife and part of his family being inside. On the road from Fareham to Gosport, Heath wished the coachman Barnaby Faulkner to pull up at the Sun at Brockhurst that he might get a glass of brandy as he felt faint and sick at the recollection of what he had witnessed at Fareham. A few yards before they reached the public house Heath, not wishing to delay the coach which was already late, attempted to get down as it was going on in doing so, caught his great-coat on the lamp iron, missed his footing and fell between the wheels, the hind wheel going over his body breaking several of his ribs, scalping his head and doing other external and internal injuries. The unfortunate man was taken to the Sun where he lingered until Tuesday and then he died.

We have some idea of what the Red Lion looked like in the middle of the 19th century the hotel contained an assembly or ball room at least 10 bedrooms and stabling for 40 horses. Today there are no facilities for stabling horses; the stables have been converted for use as a function room. One of the famous people who stayed at the hotel was Florence White who became an important cookery expert; she regularly visited her aunties at the Red Lion from 1870. In 1932 she published a book of “Real English Cookery”, which the 'Times' newspaper described as 'one of the most romantic cookery books ever written'. In 1936 she took possession of 160 West Street, and made it the headquarters of the English Folk Cooking Association saying “she chose Fareham because of her Aunt's association with the Red Lion”. As a child Florence had a rare insight into the working of the hotel, she recalls one particular memory;

“There were horses and carriages in the Red Lion in those days, not motor cars. Most vivid memory is of being kept upstairs out of the way on market day, when I peeped round the top of the stairs to see Charles, the waiter, carry into the farmers' Ordinary the great round apple pudding, which from its shape, must have been boiled in a cloth as good puddings were in those days. My Aunt Louisa was noted for her fine cooking. With her lovely hands she made most wonderful sweets and decorations for the supper dishes which were prepared for the Hunt Balls at the Red Lion.....”

In the 1950s the area which is now the car park was a garden. A line of apple trees ran from north to south, effectively cutting the garden into two roughly equal-size parts and separating the lawn/bowling green from the kitchen garden. The Statue of “Diana” was believed to have been the work of the French sculpture ‘Thebe’.

It had been said that a ghostly figure had been seen on the first floor corridor, at times there has been a strange atmosphere in the Stable Functions Suite which has been difficult to explain, and the similar atmosphere has been experienced by a lady using the toilet. If you see a Ghostly figure roaming the stairs and corridors of this nearly 300 year old premises? Please mention it to the receptionist who will if you are interested in reading more of the history of the Red Lion, offer you a book of the history of this 18th century coaching inn for only £4.50 per copy.