Black Lion

A potted history

Jacqueline Pollard

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.