The Old Bell, Derby

The Old Bell Hotel started life in the mid-seventeenth century when the prominent and influential Meynalls, a family of wealthy landowners, authorised the building of a county town coaching inn on Sadler Gate. Dating back over a millennium and one of Derby’s oldest streets, historic Sadler Gate takes its name from the saddlery trade that once dominated the area. Modernised shopfronts now house the city’s bars, coffee houses, and independent shops, concealing authentic and untouched structures where 17th-century leather workers, blacksmiths, bootmakers, and other tavern keepers once plied their trade.

Quickly taking its place in the heart of Derby’s bustling Cathedral Quarter, the Old Bell became a central stop and lifeblood for stagecoaches travelling varying routes across the country. Weary travellers on long trips would stop off at the hotel to enjoy rest and refreshments and to change horses. The historic courtyard, lantern-lit alleyway, and remnants of surviving stables give today’s visitors a fascinating glimpse of a bygone era, back to a time when coaching inn courtyards were a constant and noisy hub of activity.

With its position as a transport junction and central communication point, the Old Bell played a significant and adaptable role, expanding its functions into a doctor’s surgery and busy mail centre, with couriers delivering letters and goods from all over the world. The building was also once used as a courtroom, with its cellars employed as prison cells. Surviving secret tunnels and passageways that run under the hotel building and connect to other parts of the city suggest other possible and mysterious purposes.

The Old Bell flourished and became the place to be, where people flocked to enjoy drinking, dining, and entertainment. The hotel swelled to more than fifty rooms, seven bars, and restaurants serving as a nexus for hospitality, social gatherings, travel, and pleasure. A mechanical bell system was installed to allow guests to summon hotel maids to attend to their needs. The original and perfectly preserved service bells can still be seen on display at the Old Bell.

Original room numbers are also still in place, providing a captivating link to the building’s amazing past.

The hotel’s fantastic original and untouched attic rooms transport visitors back to a period three hundred years earlier when they were used to accommodate poorer and more disorderly guests. Drenched with a moody and somewhat sinister ambience, the unsurprisingly haunted attic rooms are the scene of many of the hotel’s more violent and allegedly murderous past chapters.

During the 1745 Jacobite uprising, Bonnie Prince Charlie and his troops took shelter at the upper and attic floors of the Old Bell on their journey to London. To reach their resting places, the soldiers would have climbed the building’s magnificent Jacobean staircase, one of the few beautifully existing and unspoilt examples of its kind that remain today. What a history!

Moving closer to more recent times, the building was refurbished in 1929 with mock-Tudor timbering sourced from other local buildings and added to its façade.

Having long been a place of music, with concerts held in the ornate ballroom as early as 1775, this iconic building became a firm favourite with many well-known musicians, with visits from Paul McCartney and John Lennon. Live music today forms a large part of the Old Bell’s line-up of entertainment. After its multi-award-winning restoration in 2013, the Old Bell remains a building of enormous architectural, historical, and cultural significance. Its continued relevance as a venue for social events, entertainment, and a preserved heritage site ensures that it will remain a cherished part of Derby for generations to come.