Red Lion Square

High Holborn (WC1) So called from its having been built on the site of Red Lion Fields. Here formerly stood an obelisk, built by a subscription of the inhabitants, which was pretended to cover the bones of Oliver Cromwell. (Tallis's London Street Views) Here was the Red Lion Inn, Holborn, to which inn the bodies of Cromwell and Ireton were brought in carts on the night previous to their exposure on the gibbet. (Reference: Jesse's London, vol. III, p. 124)