Red Lion

For the former Iranian equivalent of the Red Cross & Red Crescent see 'Red Lion and Sun Society''

For the borough in Pennsylvania, see 'Red Lion, Pennsylvania''

The Red Lion is widely regarded as the most common name for an English pub. It thus is a stand-in descriptor of the archetypal English pub. Pubs are often named after heraldic animals and devices, of which the lion is particularly common one. Several lions appear in the arms of the United Kingdom, but, ironically enough, the only red one appears in the arms of Scotland.

"Red Lion" pubs exist throughout the United Kingdom. A particularly famous "Red Lion" is one located at 48 Parliament Street in the City of Westminster in London. This pub is known to be frequented by members of the British Parliament and others who work in British politics and government. Its televisions, rather than carrying sport, instead show BBC Parliament coverage, so that MPs can know what they are missing while they have slipped out for a pint, and the pub even rings a division bell to alert its customers of an upcoming vote.

In 2005, it was revealed that there was an exact replica of the Parliament Street pub in a city-sized nuclear bunker beneath Wiltshire (see Burlington). The pub was given a more rural-sounding name, however: The Rose and Crown.

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.