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The Crown & Lion was situated at 122 Bancroft. This pub was built in 1967 on the combined sites of The Crown and The Lion. It closed on 5th May 1978.

Source: Mark Andrew Pardoe

My dad ran this pub, I guess in the late 70s. I went to the Sacred Heart school and remember the abandoned abbatoir next door. We had a dog called Dandy who would escape via the back door to the market and I'd hear his chain wandering around. It was also the age of clackers. I think. I would raid the basement bar for abandoned change and cracker gifts after a wedding, and store them in a Pantella cigar tins. George Best peanut cards. It was also the age of the 3 day week and I would charge 2p to guide punters to the bar with a torch.  Many good, and some not so good, memories

pinkthing999 (April 2021)

Last month, two major brewers joined in the opening of a single house, the Crown & Lion, Hitchin. It is incorporated in a new development scheme in the town centre and is a combined Flowers Breweries and Greene King project. The ground floor is a spacious lounge ar from which stairs lead down to the dive bar. Upstairs is a restaurant with seating for 42. The main decorative feature here is a 10ft wall collage depicting a scene based on Richard the Lionheart with crown and lion motifs. The house was officially opened by the MP for Hitchin, Mrs Shirley Williams, Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Education, who pulled the first pint following an introduction by Mr K Parkhurst, managing director of Flowers Breweries. The premises come under Whitbread's managed house department.

Brewing Trade Review, September 1967

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