Red Lion, Southampton

Red Lion

55 High Street, Southampton SO14 2NS

Grade C · TraditionTrading · checked Sept 2026

Red Lion is given 1148 with no published claimant. The records say 1552.

Claimed

1148

First record

1552

Building

no single date

The building. Late C15 and early C16 timber-framed hall house behind a 1920s mock-timber front; a medieval vault below survives from an earlier building — we give it no single date because the standing hall house is late C15 to early C16; the vault beneath is medieval but undated.

Historic interior

Real ale

Food

Haunted

Legend

The claim

Behind a tall 1920s mock-Tudor front on the old High Street stands a medieval hall house, its bar rising the full height of the hall to a tie-beam roof, with galleries and panelling above and a vaulted chamber below. CAMRA counts the interior among the most important in the country. The Southampton Plot story attaches to the upper room.

What the records show

The 1148 that local accounts attach to the Red Lion belongs to the cellars, not to any record of drinking here. Historic England lists the building Grade II* as a well-preserved late C15 or early C16 hall house, with a medieval vault below probably left from an earlier house, and the frontage is 1920s. Southampton's local histories give the first licence as 1552. The upper room is shown as the court of the 1415 Southampton Plot. The standing hall is later than the trial and no record we found places the hearing here, though a medieval vault survives from an earlier building on the site.

Dated evidence for Red Lion, earliest first
Year	What	Source
1148	Claimed founding	No published claimant
1552	First record of a drinking house here	Historic England

What to look for inside

Medieval hall open to the roof, with galleries at first-floor level
Vaulted chamber below, shown as Henry V's court room
On CAMRA's National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors

Visiting

Red Lion is in Southampton, England, at 55 High Street, Southampton SO14 2NS. We do not list opening times, because they change; the pub’s own site is the place to check before you set out.

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