the red lion hotel, boscawen st
The Red Lion hotel on Boscawen Street in Truro dated back to the 17th century, having been built as a family home in 1682, before being re-opened as The Red Lion Hotel by Thomas Gatty in 1769. The hotel was one of the finest in the county, but sadly it was badly damaged in 1967 when a lorry travelling down Lemon Street failed to stop due to brake failure. Councillors argued it would simply be too expensive to rebuild the hotel and the building was demolished. There has been controversy over whether the old building could have been repaired ever since.
The roof statue (left) was found in a skip, shortly after the accident and saved for the Royal Cornwall Museum. It gives some sense of the style of the old hotel, and the remarkable attention to decor for which the hotel was famed. Today, the building houses a convenience store, and is rather more utilitarian in style.