Red Lion, High Barnet

Grade II listing;- 1930, by W.F. Foster (1876-1940) for the Meux Brewery. Brown brick with extensive stone dressings, tiled roof. Square in plan, with an extension to the rear. Three storeys.

EXTERIOR: Seven-bay front to the street. End bays slightly projecting. Central Corinthian doorcase to centre, with pedimented window above within a stone surround. Rusticated brickwork to ground floor, entrance flanked by bow windows. 9/9 pane sash windows with brick arches and shutters. Modillion cornice. Hopper-heads dated 1930. Left-hand bay has a blind arch in yellow brick at first floor, with a large console beneath, carrying a wrought iron bracket supporting a carved figure of a red lion. Canted corner to south-east with scallop-headed doorcase. Five-bay return elevation with Corinthian doorcase to left-hand bay, next to a projecting square tower, with square windows, capped with a pyramidal roof with finial. Rear elevation arranged on two sides around a courtyard, with arched openings to ground floor (that to the tower is blind, with rusticated voussoirs in yellow brick). 9/9-pane windows to first floor, 3/6-pane windows to second floor. Lower projecting continuation to west.

INTERIOR: Ground floor has been much altered already. Fretwork staircase to first floor remains in situ, lit at first floor landing level with a circular skylight with a sunburst effect in blue and yellow glass. Large room to the rear extension retains its decorative plasterwork.

HISTORY: This site has a long history of use as a coaching inn, going back to the 15th century, positioned on a major road into London: the earliest reference to an inn on this site is to a messuage, 'late called the Cardinal's Hat and now the Antelope' in 1439. By the later 19th century it had become a 'Masonic, Family and Commercial Hotel'. The site of the coaching inn was truncated in 1901 on the laying-out of Fitzjohn Avenue to the south. It was rebuilt in 1930 by the Meux Brewery, using their in-house architect, William Foster. The prominent carved lion, on the dramatic wrought iron bracket, were re-used from the earlier building. The new premises included a banqueting room, two dance halls and a Masonic lodge, in addition to hotel rooms. Despite having had its ground floor changed, it remains a very good example of an inter-war road-house in the Neo-Georgian style, drawing on a wide range of stylistic sources for inspiration. Extensive alterations were carried out in 1985; the ground floor currently (July 2002) being altered.