Holborn: Red Lion Square: William Morris

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W. J. Loftie, adding to the incomplete work of Sir Walter Besant, in The Fascination of London, published in 1903, continues his survey of Holborn with this mention of William Morris' home in Red Lion Square:

St. John the Evangelist's Church, of red brick, designed by Pearson, stands at the south-west corner of Red Lion Square.

It was built 1876-1878, and is very conspicuous, with two pointed towers and a handsome, deeply-recessed east window.

Next door is the clergy house.

There are in the Square various associations and societies, including the Mendicity Society, Indigent Blind Visiting Society, St. Paul's Hospital, and others.

Milton had a house which overlooked Red Lion Fields, the site of the Square, and Jonas Hanway, traveller and philanthropist, also a voluminous writer, but who will be best remembered as the first man in England to carry an umbrella, died here in 1786.

Sharon Turner, historian, came here after his marriage in 1795, and Lord Chief Justice Raymond, who held his high office in the reign of the first and second Georges, lived in the Square.

But a later association will, perhaps, be more interesting to most people: for about three years previously to 1859 Sir E. Burne-Jones and William Morris lived in rooms at No. 17, before either was married.

Of the surrounding streets, those at the south-east and north-east angles are the most quaint.

An old house with red tiles stands at each corner, and the remaining houses, though not so picturesque, are of ancient date.

The streets are mere flagged passages lined by open stalls and little shops.

Next: Holborn: Theobald's Road