The Red Lion, Weymouth

Standing on the opposite corner to Pilgrim House on the corner of Hope Street within Hope Square is our Red Lion Pub (there are plenty of Red Lions about the country as it is the most popular pub name in England!!). Our Red Lion is one of Weymouth’s finest and most famous pubs. In April 2009 the pub was acquired by its present owners and refurbished to bring it back to its former glory. The Red Lion had its true pub name restored at the turn of the Millenium after spending a few years as the ‘Dorset Brewers Ale House’. The Red Lion has always been famous for its ales and still is today, but now the pub has developed a good name for its home cooked food and amazing collection of 100 rums and whiskies on its splendid back bar shelves. The Pub has its own ‘bible’ of whiskies and rums for fans to look through.

In the winter The Red Lion is one of Weymouth’s smallest and more intimate pubs with its live fire and soft lighting. In the summer it grows in size with its popular outside seating area that has sunshine all day and well into the evening. The building shows a date of 1878, but was known to exist in 1851 when Edward Newman was the landlord. This whole area underwent quite a transformation some years ago and is now something of a tourist attraction in itself. The most notable change was in the use of the old brewery. Up until the 1980s Devenish were still brewing their beer here. Since its closure in 1985 the building has been transformed and taken a tasteful step back in time in more ways than one. Now known as Brewers Quay it is once again closed awaiting conversion to a hotel.

Beer was brewed on this site for hundreds of years, since at least 1252. It was the ideal site for a brewery as water was close by coming from a spring at Chapelhay and nearby, at Radipole there were barley fields. In 1462 John Devenish was appointed supervisor of all brewers in the King’s realm. The Devenish family took over the entire site in Hope Square in the 1820′s and they continued brewing beer here up until 1985.

The Red Lion is a real pub, local and proud.