The Old Red Lion is a pub and

fringe theatre Fringe theatre is theatre that is produced outside of the main theatre institutions, and that is often small-scale and non-traditional in style or subject matter. The term comes from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.Kemp, Robert, ''More that is Fr ...

, at

Angel In various theistic religious traditions an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God. Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles ...

, in the

London Borough of Islington The London Borough of Islington ( ) is a London borough in Inner London. Whilst the majority of the district is located in north London, the borough also includes a significant area to the south which forms part of central London. Islington has ...

. The theatre was founded in 1979 as the Old Red Lion Theatre Club. The pub was

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...

in 1994 by

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked w ...

History

Construction

The pub in itself is one of the oldest in London, having first been built in 1415 in what was then the rural village of Islington in open countryside and fields. A house called Goose Farm and some nearby cattle pens (for herds being driven to

Smithfield Market Smithfield, properly known as West Smithfield, is a district located in Central London, part of Farringdon Without, the most westerly ward of the City of London, England. Smithfield is home to a number of City institutions, such as St Barth ...

) were the only structures to adjoin it, and St John Street (then called Chester Road) was a country lane.

18th century

In the late 18th century Chester Road became notorious for highwaymen, with patrols being provided to protect those travelling along it at night. At this time descriptions state that the Old Red Lion was a small brick house with three trees in its forecourt, visited by

William Hogarth William Hogarth (; 10 November 1697 – 26 October 1764) was an English painter, engraver, pictorial satirist, social critic, editorial cartoonist and occasional writer on art. His work ranges from realistic portraiture to comic strip-like ...

(who portrayed it in the middle distance of his painting "Evening", with the foreground being

Sadler's Wells Sadler's Wells Theatre is a performing arts venue in Clerkenwell, London, England located on Rosebery Avenue next to New River Head. The present-day theatre is the sixth on the site since 1683. It consists of two performance spaces: a 1,500-seat ...

Samuel Johnson Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709 – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. The ''Oxford ...

and

Thomas Paine Thomas Paine (born Thomas Pain; – In the contemporary record as noted by Conway, Paine's birth date is given as January 29, 1736–37. Common practice was to use a dash or a slash to separate the old-style year from the new-style year. In th ...

(who wrote '' The Rights of Man'' in the shade of the trees in its forecourt).

Reconstruction

The Old Red Lion was rebuilt in 1899, designed by Eedle and Myers, 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 it through one door and disappearing through the other.

Theatre

In 1979 a small

studio theatre A black box theater is a simple performance space, typically a square room with black walls and a flat floor. The simplicity of the space allows it to be used to create a variety of configurations of stage and audience interaction. The black ...

opened on the pub's first floor, as the Old Red Lion Theatre Club. Under artistic director Charlie Hanson, it became a place for actors, directors, designers, writers and technicians to experiment. After the

King's Cross fire The King's Cross fire was a 1987 fire in a London Underground station with 31 fatalities, after a fire under a wooden escalator suddenly spread into the underground ticket hall in a flashover. The fire began at approximately 19:30 on 18 Novembe ...

in 1987, the theatre was threatened with closure due to the tightening of fire regulations. Artistic Director Ken McClymont raised funds to keep the theatre from closing.

Notable past productions

Nina Raine Nina Raine is an English theatre director and playwright, the only daughter of Craig Raine and Ann Pasternak Slater, and a grand niece of the Russian novelist Boris Pasternak. She graduated from Christ Church, Oxford in 1998 with a First in Eng ...

, winner of the 2006 Most Promising Playwright Award, staged her first show, ''Rabbit'', at the Old Red Lion Theatre in March to April 2006. ''Who is Eddie Linden'', a play based upon

Sebastian Barker Sebastian Smart Barker FRSL (16 April 1945 – 31 January 2014) was a British poet notable for a visionary manner that has been compared to William Blake in its use of the long ecstatic line and its "ability to write lyric poetry which used simp ...

's biography of poet and editor

Eddie Linden Edward Sean Linden (born John Edward Glackin; 5 May 1935) is a Scottish poet, literary magazine editor and political activist. From 1969 to 2004, he published and edited the poetry magazine ''Aquarius'', which, according to ''The Irish Post'', m ...

, was staged in 1995.

Today

It is the main pub for the

Capital Canaries Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used fo ...

, the official London fan club for Norwich City F.C.

Literary department

The literary department reads over 1,000 scripts each year, under an open submissions policy.

Artistic directors

* Charlie Hanson (1979–1981) *Jane Goldman (1981–82) *Mike Gilmore (1982-74) *Richard Hansom (1984–88) *Ken McClymont (1988–2002) *

Melanie Tait Melanie Tait is an Australian playwright and author. She is from Robertson, New South Wales. Career At 20 years of age she wrote the ''The Vegemite Tales'', which played in London over seven years from 2001 to 2007, including two years on the ...

(2002–2004) *Helen Devine (2004–2010) *Henry Filloux-Bennett (Artistic Director 2010-2011) (Co-Artistic Director) (2011–2012) *Nicholas Thompson (Co-Artistic Director) (2011–2012) (Artistic Director 2012-2014) *Stewart Pringle (Artistic Director) (2014–2016) *Clive Judd (Artistic Director) (2016-2017) *Katy Danbury (Artistic Director & Theatre Manager) (2017–2019) *Alexander Knott (Artistic Director) (2019–present)

Awards

Old Red Lion Theatre won the Dan Crawford Pub Theatre Award for 2006.

References

External links

Old Red Lion
{{DEFAULTSORT:Old Red Lion Theatre Theatres in the London Borough of Islington Pub theatres in London Pubs in the London Borough of Islington Grade II listed pubs in London Buildings and structures in Islington