Dark Secret of The Red Lion
A
supermarket could eventually mark the spot where the Red Lion once stood, a
landmark which has had an inn on its site since 1680.
 |
However,
few are aware of a strange story surrounding The Pubs originals reported
in a Victorian magazine, claiming the inn's first ever proprietor was a
notorious highwayman whose relentless robbery of coach passengers
brought terror to Brighton Road. It
is unclear how much of the story of the Red Lion's beginnings is fact or
fiction, but it has become a legend. According
to the Surrey Magazine, March 1900 edition, the Red Lion originally
started life when a highwayman called Alexander used the fortune he
amassed from robbing travellers to buy the land where the pub would one
day stand. |
In
the article, author Hampton Hamilton writes: "Here he lived, trapping and
robbing unwary travellers at every possible opportunity, many of whom doubtless
found their last resting places beneath the thistles and heather of Fairdean
Downs. Fairdean Downs (now known as Farthing Downs), their remains soon to
become untraceable owing to the action of the quicklime in which it believed
their bodies were interred."
Alexander
is believed to have targeted travellers for years but his dastardly deeds did
not stop once he built his so-called legitimate business, the Red Lion.
The
area has become so notorious for highway robberies that when the Red Lion first
opened as an inn it was avoided by stage coach drivers.
To
tempt business, Alexander is said to have written a Sign advertising free ginger
wine for all coach drivers who pulled up at
However
while drivers were sipping on complimentary ale the coach passengers were being
robbed by the Red Lion's nefarious innkeeper.
In
a covert to continue his robberies undetected, Alexander is believed to have dug
a secret tunnel from the wine cellar to the outbuilding, a short distance away,
so he could slip out without arousing suspicion.
Hamilton
adds: "A short time ago, when this old place was thoroughly overhauled and
examined, several rusty knives and other weapons of defence were found embedded
in the earthen floor of this dark unventilated subway. "These old relics
were supposed to have belonged to numerous victims of the highwayman, and to
have been dropped, or wrenched, from their grasp as they were being dragged or
carried along through this narrow dungeon. ''Several efforts to discover the
human remains buried near this spot have, up to now, proved futile. But as it is
absolutely certain that many travellers did lose their lives at the hands of
this villainous highwayman, it is more than probable that their remains were
deposited on Farthing Downs."
According
to the Surrey Magazine, which is held at Croydon's Local Studies Library and
Archive Service, Alexander was eventually caught after an elderly customer
overheard him discussing a planned robbery of a wealthy coach passenger and
raised the alarm. He was subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment.
A
spokesman from the local studies library said staff there are "extremely
doubtful" of the story's accuracy but admit the area was a
hotbed
of highwaymen activity.
"It
is true that the Smitham Bottom area was a prime location for highwayman. It was
boggy and dark. Most people travelled over hills to avoid highwaymen but those
in coaches had to take the lower ground so were more at risk. We doubt very much
that the pub was built by a highwayman as the location of the pub was on the
main road from London to Brighton and is more likely to have been built as a
stop-off for stagecoaches.
"There may be a small grain of truth in the story but we suspect it has been greatly embellished over the years. There is no proof either way."