Red Lion Leytonstone reopens: what’s new – and on the menu

During the thirteen years under Antic’s stewardship, Leytonstone’s landmark historic pile had fallen into something far scruffier than its intended “shabby chic” concept.

So, revitalising the 10-bedroom boutique hotel, spectacular 300-capacity grand ballroom (one of the biggest local spaces for live gatherings), not to mention the capacious pub interiors, and beer garden (as well as creating a new smaller function room) ended up costing new owners Urban Pubs & Bars a whopping £1million.

The exterior is now a grown-up shade of burgundy. And while the main bar and dining room have been gently smartened up, it’s been kept pubby, the simple grandeur of the fireplaces and huge windows intact. The outside space – something of a dustbowl before – promises to be a far more useful year-round spot with the installation of all-weather heated wooden booths, and there are striking street-art-inspired murals, too.

You might well take this watering hole for granted if you’ve moved to the neighbourhood within the last decade-and-a-half, but The Red Lion has had something of a chequered past.

So what’s the story? Well, established way back in 1670 as The Robin Hood, it had metamorphosed into the Red Lion by the mid-18th century, a stopping place for stagecoaches and, in the absence of a town hall, a bit of a rowdy social hotspot to boot.

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Fast forward a century or so and it was rebuilt in 1891 into the fine Gothic pile we see now: look at those leaded windows, that elegant cupola, the way it catches the evening sun.

Until the present incarnation, its previous most popular era, after the 1930s (pictured above), was arguably the 1970s, when it was an influential live music venue, even hosting an early Led Zeppelin London gig. Other legendary bands to have graced its stage include Yes, Genesis, The Who, and Roxy Music. Not a bad pedigree: cultural icon status, even, I would argue. Where’s that blue plaque, Historic England?

There have been low points too, its popularity taking a nosedive in the 1980s as Luther’s; and by 2001 it had become Cuba Bella, a salsa bar, before a revamp as Zulu’s a year later, a late night spot aimed at the area’s South African community. It ticked over until being reborn in 2011 courtesy of Antic, the pub group which started life as the Dog Star in Brixton.

The mid-teens saw the launch of its shiny boutique hotel, a few months before lockdown. And the ground-floor gained the rep as the place where, after 11pm at weekends, the decks came out and it blossomed into a late-night haunt. Now, there’ll still be DJs from 9pm on Friday and Saturday nights, plus live music, comedy and other events in the ballroom.

As mentioned on these pages back in September, the Red Lion was one of eleven boozers in London Urban Pubs & Bars rescued from administration since previous owners Antic went under (others are The East Dulwich Tavern in East Dulwich, The Sun in Camberwell and the George & Dragon in Wanstead – for more on that, see below). They also own the acclaimed Salt Yard Group, which include Dehesa, Ember Yard and Opera Tavern, and this is why their takeover of the Red Lion is a good thing for what will surely be an upturn in its food offer.

Highlights of the new menu include North Sea cod with pink fir potatoes, rainbow chard, mussels, sriracha butter sauce and dill oil (£21) and Himalayan salt-aged sirloin, with skin-on fries, watercress and peppercorn sauce (£29.50), while there are also more standard pub grub offers.

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