Red Lion Square was built from the late 1680s by speculator Nicholas Barbon.
It was built to the dismay of Gray’s Inn lawyers who wanted to maintain their open views. The square took its name from the Red Lion Inn, situated next to Red Lion Fields. It was here that Cromwell’s body was dragged and rested at the Inn. It was said his decapitated head was buried somewhere under the present-day square.
By 1720 it was a fashionable part of London but by the 1860s, it had clearly become decidedly down at heel.
The square today is home to the Royal College of Anaesthetists and the College of Emergency Medicine.