This page is one of several pages which are based on articles in our book entitled Royal Leamington Spa, A History in 100 Buildings which was published in 2018 and is no longer in print.
The address of this pub was originally in Cross Street, which was later named Regent Street in honour of the Prince Regent. The Golden Lion was one of the first buildings to be built north of the river Leam as part of the “new town” in 1810 and it was one of the few places where accommodation could be had. The site, previously part of a farmland estate belonging to Mr Bertie Bertie Greatheed of Guy’s Cliffe Warwick, measured 1,440 square yards and was sold to Mr William Pratt, a local joiner and Mr John Russell, a Warwick banker. It was known as a “common public house” with its first landlord being a James Miles 1810-1814.
A horse-drawn omnibus service ran from outside the pub in 1831 calling at Warwick, Kenilworth and Coventry, returning to Leamington in the late afternoon.
By1868 the pub was a freehold property consisting of a large entrance hall, a commercial room, smoke room, large bar, tap room, larder and kitchen on the ground floor. The upper floors contained a sitting room, a large club or ballroom and five bedrooms. Down below, the basement had storage for 3,000 gallons of ale. Outside there was a brew house, a yard, stabling for seven horses and a coach house.
The Golden Lion was part of a tied estate of 35 pubs owned by the Leamington Brewery when it was purchased by Lucas, Blackwell and Arkwright in 1885. Later it was purchased by Ansells. There were three entrances to the pub, all in Regent Street. The lounge to the right, the bar to the left and the outdoor in the middle.
The Golden Lion closed in 1988 after 179 years, having retained its original name for all of that time. Edmund ‘Eddie’ Franconni and his wife Mary became the fiftieth and final licensees of the pub (1984-1988).
That same year, Ansells Properties Ltd sought permission for the use of the public house as a bank. At the date of writing it is still a bank – The Royal Bank of Scotland. It has been announced in mid-summer 2018 that this branch of RBS is listed for closure. The front façade has been preserved and the fixtures for the pub sign can still be seen. The pub sign is now in the Leamington Art Gallery and Museum. The building is Listed Grade II.
Michael Pearson 2018
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS are presented at the end of this page — https://leamingtonhistory.co.uk/articles-from-royal-leamington-spa-a-history-in-100-buildings/