Dark Secret of The Red Lion
A supermarket could eventually mark the spot where the Red Lion once stood, a landmark which has had an inn on its site since 1680.
However, few are aware of a strange story surrounding The Pubs originals reported in a Victorian magazine, claiming the inn's first ever proprietor was a notorious highwayman whose relentless robbery of coach passengers brought terror to Brighton Road.
It is unclear how much of the story of the Red Lion's beginnings is fact or fiction, but it has become a legend.
According to the Surrey Magazine, March 1900 edition, the Red Lion originally started life when a highwayman called Alexander used the fortune he amassed from robbing travellers to buy the land where the pub would one day stand.
In the article, author Hampton Hamilton writes: "Here he lived, trapping and robbing unwary travellers at every possible opportunity, many of whom doubtless found their last resting places beneath the thistles and heather of Fairdean Downs. Fairdean Downs (now known as Farthing Downs), their remains soon to become untraceable owing to the action of the quicklime in which it believed their bodies were interred."
Alexander is believed to have targeted travellers for years but his dastardly deeds did not stop once he built his so-called legitimate business, the Red Lion.
The area has become so notorious for highway robberies that when the Red Lion first opened as an inn it was avoided by stage coach drivers.
To tempt business, Alexander is said to have written a Sign advertising free ginger wine for all coach drivers who pulled up at the Inn and in no time the Red Lion, became a popular haunt.
However while drivers were sipping on complimentary ale the coach passengers were being robbed by the Red Lion's nefarious innkeeper.
In a covert to continue his robberies undetected, Alexander is believed to have dug a secret tunnel from the wine cellar to the outbuilding, a short distance away, so he could slip out without arousing suspicion.
Hamilton adds: "A short time ago, when this old place was thoroughly overhauled and examined, several rusty knives and other weapons of defence were found embedded in the earthen floor of this dark unventilated subway. "These old relics were supposed to have belonged to numerous victims of the highwayman, and to have been dropped, or wrenched, from their grasp as they were being dragged or carried along through this narrow dungeon. ''Several efforts to discover the human remains buried near this spot have, up to now, proved futile. But as it is absolutely certain that many travellers did lose their lives at the hands of this villainous highwayman, it is more than probable that their remains were deposited on Farthing Downs."
According to the Surrey Magazine, which is held at Croydon's Local Studies Library and Archive Service, Alexander was eventually caught after an elderly customer overheard him discussing a planned robbery of a wealthy coach passenger and raised the alarm. He was subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment.
A spokesman from the local studies library said staff there are "extremely doubtful" of the story's accuracy but admit the area was a hotbed of highwaymen activity.
"It is true that the Smitham Bottom area was a prime location for highwayman. It was boggy and dark. Most people travelled over hills to avoid highwaymen but those in coaches had to take the lower ground so were more at risk. We doubt very much that the pub was built by a highwayman as the location of the pub was on the main road from London to Brighton and is more likely to have been built as a stop-off for stagecoaches.
"There may be a small grain of truth in the story but we suspect it has been greatly embellished over the years. There is no proof either way."