The Bell Inn

From the outside, The Bell looks like a handsome, city-centre Georgian hostelry, all black-and-white paintwork and symmetrical sash windows. Only it doesn’t have a proper front door, just a little brick passageway that takes you right into the inn’s innards, past stained-glass windows bearing the date the first pint was pulled (AD1437).
To the right is a dark, low-beamed bar, its front windows covered over with thick curtains, and its back windows blacked out as if for the Blitz. To the left is a longer, lighter bar, with windows through which you can look out over Nottingham’s old market square. Both bars serve real ales, but for the full range, you need to carry on through to the back room.
Here you find a prosperously wood-panelled dining room that puts you in mind of a Victorian chop house. The walls are alive with old photographs of the city’s past and with the hand-painted names of past landlords. Meanwhile, along a bar the length of a cricket wicket, real ale pumps sprout up like stumps.
As well as Abbot Ale and Abbot Reserve (6.5% abv), there’s Ruddles County, plus three different beers from the city’s prolific Nottingham Brewery (Legend, Rock and Extra Pale), and three from Greene King, namely IPA, Refectory Ale and Olde Trip (named after sister establishment Ye Olde Trip To Jerusalem, which is reputedly 300 years older and undoubtedly dug deep into the castle walls).
At the comparatively youthful Bell, diners in cosy, raised booths dig into a range of pub dishes that are, well, inn-ovative. There’s hand-battered halloumi (£7.95), plus ham hock and broad bean pie (also £7.95), there’s a £6.95 Combo platter (chicken skewers, squid rings and onion rings), and an £8.45 version featuring half a dozen mini-burgers (two plain, two cheese, two cheese and bacon).

Live Music & What's On

Monday evening
Live jazz
Wednesday night
Open mic night
Sunday lunch Live jazz
Live music most weekends