Comments on: The Alleys Of Old London

By: Gareth Adamson

Gareth Adamson — Sat, 25 Apr 2026 10:49:30 +0000

Lamb’s Conduit Passage runs off the north east corner of Red Lion Square. Red Lion Passage was the corresponding alley off the south east corner, so similar, but not the same. You can see from the pictures that Red Lion Passage was quite a bit longer. Both of them are/were remnants of the criss-cross paths across Red Lion Fields, the rather larger open space the centre of which became Red Lion Square in the 18th century.

Most of the buildings in Red Lion Passage were obliterated by WW2 bombing, It was all cleared in the early 1950s and a council housing estate built in its place, and at the far end an office building, 20 Red Lion Street. About half its length still exists, but only as unnamed footpath through the council estate. One of the blocks on the estate, Brampton House, now occupies that corner of the square, and there is access through it to the still existing section, though no longer along the original line. At the far end, beyond the office building, there is also a ghost of old Red Lion Passage where the Old Nick pub stands back and at an odd angle from Sandland Street.

See here for more detail, including maps showing both the Passages: https://www.redlionsquare.uk/1860-1960/

By: Penny Gardner

Penny Gardner — Sun, 10 Jul 2022 12:04:32 +0000

Lovely ,brings back memories of Sundays spent wandering around the backways of London ,with my Dad ,in the 1950s.

By: Claire D

Claire D — Sun, 10 Jul 2022 11:03:57 +0000

Fascinating and comforting in equal measure, though I wish the modern wrought iron was more like the old.
Thank you Gentle Author, such beautiful illustrations from 1923, the year my mother was born.

By: Bernie

Bernie — Sun, 10 Jul 2022 10:39:49 +0000

Red Lion Passage: Now that takes me back to 1950 and my Inter BSc year at Birkbeck College, still in its old, bomb-damaged Breams Buildings premises. I was employed as a laboratory technician in Biochemistry at University College and, four nights a week, I walked (at my highest speed) from Torrington Place to Birkbeck, cutting through back streets to Red Lion Square and passing the Conway Hall. Good exercise with a briefcase full of books and good education too, because it turned me into a regular audience-member of the Conway’s Sunday evening chamber-music recitals. Happy Days! And concordant with my fondest hope and wildest imaginings, preparation for a successful career that I can now look back on from retirement.

By: Mathilde Grange

Mathilde Grange — Sun, 10 Jul 2022 10:01:07 +0000

Incredible! What a grand idea! It’s great to see the then and the now. Thank you and have a good day.

By: Milo

Milo — Sun, 10 Jul 2022 09:32:26 +0000

It was really heart warming to see how unchanged some pockets of London still are after all the relentless images of ‘modernisation’ we are subject to. Cheered me right up this miserable sunday.

By: Marcia Howard

Marcia Howard — Sun, 10 Jul 2022 07:22:36 +0000

What truly wonderful drawings showing such talent, and wonderful too that your B&W photos show these places to be still in existence!

By: Janet Spink

Janet Spink — Sun, 10 Jul 2022 06:09:28 +0000

A distant ancestor was born in Pear Tree Court in 1839; lovely to know it still exists and to see the drawing from 1923.