The claim
Hidden behind a modest Georgian front on the Old Market Square, the Bell conceals a tree-ring-dated medieval timber frame and deep sandstone cellars with a well. It is the Nottingham contender with the best-dated fabric, even if its tavern paperwork starts later. Expect beamed bars on several floors, cask ale and a busy city-centre crowd.
What the records show
The 1437 is the pub's own: the Bell's website, archived in 2016 before Greene King's pages replaced it, said the inn dates from around 1437 and is the oldest in the city, while giving c.1420 for the dendrochronological dating of its timbers. The listing, made on 12 May 1982 and drawing on Pevsner's Nottinghamshire, reads the fabric as late 15th-century behind an 1820s front, with substantial timber framing, stop-chamfered ceiling beams, crown post roofs and rock-hewn cellars — later than the tree-ring reading of about 1420 by half a century. It also states that the building has been a public house since the middle of the 18th century, which is later again than the 1638 bequest of half the inn's rental income by Robert Sherwin, the earliest written reference Wikipedia's account can name. This page takes 1638 as the earliest record of the house as an inn and notes that the listing will not go back beyond the 1750s; the alehouse of 1539, after the Whitefriars refectory was dissolved, is a story nothing traced documents.
| Year | What | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1437 | Claimed founding | The pub |
| c.1420 | Present building | Dendrochronology |
| 1638 | First record of a drinking house here | Historic England |
What to look for inside
- Timbers dendro-dated to the 15th century
- Sandstone cellars with a monks' well
- Former landlord William Clarke founded Trent Bridge cricket ground
Visiting
The Bell Inn is in Nottingham, England, at 18 Angel Row, Old Market Square, Nottingham NG1 6HL. We do not list opening times, because they change; the pub’s own site is the place to check before you set out.
Sources
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bell_Inn,_Nottingham
- camra.org.uk/pubs/bell-inn-nottingham-162702
- heritagecalling.com/2022/12/22/what-is-the-oldest-pub-or-inn-in-england/
- web.archive.org/web/20160305092939/http://www.bellinnnottingham.co.uk/about/
- www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=1271441&resourceID=5
- ratings.food.gov.uk/business/217607
Know something we don’t?Suggest a correctionLast checked Sept 2026
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