Red Lion Square

Red Lion Square and the area around was a white meat market from early medieval times.
This may account for the preponderance of butcher's shops in the vicinity. By the 14th century rows of shops were built and there were lanes called Butcher's Row & Byhindback. These were all cleared before 1800 and in the 19th century new properties were built around the Square.

No. 3 Red Lion Square was a butcher's shop in the occupation of two families, the Pollards then the Peppers (see picture) for a hundred years until Annie Pepper died in 1922. Numbers 8 to 10 were built by the Marquis of Exeter in 1818 with 3 stories and cellars underneath, ideal for butchers, and two of them did become butcher's shops. Number 10 was occupied by George Harr for about 50 years at the end of the 19th century and then for nearly as long in the 20th century by Joseph Woolhouse and family.

Records suggest that No. 8 was a pork butcher by 1822 and this was probably the premises of Isaac Lumby. In the 1860s it was run by Mary Strickson then George Pepper Burrell was the proprietor for a short time before Louis Featherstone took over. The Halls, who also had another butcher's shop, took over the business in 1898.
The photograph shows the shop in the early 20th century before Harold Nelson bought the business from C W Hall in 1924.