Look for the broad, refaced frontage with its slightly overhanging upper storey and the White Lion pub sign marking the building on Sopwell Lane.
This house carries itself rather modestly, but its bones reach back to the end of the sixteenth century. Behind that smoother street face sits an older timber-framed structure, with a first floor that juts out just a little - an old building’s quiet way of claiming space. Historic England now protects it as a Grade Two listed building.
Its name has shifted like a whispered rumour. A deed from seventeen thirty-five already calls it the White Lion, yet notes that it had once been the Three Cupps. That same record lets slip something even more interesting: part of the premises had served as a meeting house, then a brewhouse, so this was not always simply a pub. If you glance at the image on your screen, you can see the frontage that conceals that older story rather neatly.
In the seventeen forties, owners and mortgage holders kept shuffling through the paperwork - Samuel Long, William Wiltshire, Henry Potter, Moses Machorro - proof that this was prized Sopwell Lane property. Later, local police distrusted the place for a wonderfully specific reason: it had three exits, which made it easy for troublemakers to slip away.
Then came respectability of a different sort. Under landlord David Worcester, the Campaign for Real Ale, or C-A-M-R-A, praised it as one of the district’s better beer pubs. Even so, modern trouble still found it: a former landlord paid a fine of two thousand pounds after a music licence breach. These days it remains a moderate-priced pub, usually open daily from noon until eleven at night.
The White Lion has spent centuries changing names, uses, owners, and reputations, while keeping its old frame intact.
When you are ready, continue on to the Hare and Hounds, where another St Albans story waits just ahead.
