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A potted history

The smallest of the three pubs in Preston village, the Black Lion stood on the corner of Preston Road and South Road. It was a three-storey building built in the 1850’s with a cobbled wall fronting a small garden to the side. During the early 1900’s Kidd & Hotblacks, whose advertising sign promised to deliver bottled ales and stout to customer’s houses, supplied the pub.

Members of the Chatfield family were landlords of the ‘Black Lion’ from the 1870’s to the 1930’s but after WW11 trade diminished and the pub was sold and demolished in the 1970’s. A Shell garage now stands on the site.

You can find out more about the history of Preston in ‘Preston: Downland Village to Brighton Suburb’, recently published by Brighton Books.

Black Lion pub, Preston village, built in 1850s
Photo supplied by Jacqueline Pollard, Brighton Books

Comments about this page

  • Fascinating to see this on your site. My grandmother (Ellen Wood) was listed as a general servant domestic on the 1891 census at this pub and her sister Maria (my great aunt) was a barmaid. Both were living in along with the licensed victualler – Mary A.Berkshire and an ostler/groom Robert Baldwin. My father was the youngest son of Ellen Wood and Harold Foulkes, and was born in Albert Terrace, Preston, Brighton (long since demolished I expect). We moved to Devon in 1949  when I was 10 and can’t remember ever seeing this particular building before.

    By Rita Hider (07/04/2017)
  • A dear friend of my late Grandmother ran this pub in the 1960s (and possibly before).  A large jolly lady with a big smile, Edie Bailey.  Anyone remember her?

    By Suzie S (08/04/2017)

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