The last Regency inn in a Regency town
Four straightforward en-suite rooms above a pub that has been standing on Bath Road since 1809, six minutes on foot from the Promenade. The building is Grade II listed, and the county's pub record and the local press both call it the last remaining Regency inn left in Cheltenham. In a town that sells itself on Regency architecture, that is not a small thing, and not one listing site mentions it.
You will know it from the street by the ground floor: dark green glazed tiles wrapping the corner, with BELL INN set into the tilework in gold beneath the two front windows, under cream stucco, iron balconies and window boxes. Inside there is a timber bar, plum-painted walls, brass pendants and blackboards, and a garden, sun terrace and picnic area behind.
Room only, and better for it
This is not a hotel pretending to be a pub. There is no restaurant and no breakfast, and the listing sites calling it a Hotel are the ones getting it wrong. What you are paying for is the position and the room, and both are good: guests rate the location higher than anything else here, and the rooms are consistently described as bigger than expected.
Breakfast is a short walk rather than a problem. A sandwich shop trades a few doors along the same block, Prithvi is two minutes down Bath Road and the cafes of Montpellier and the Suffolks start within ten. The rooms come with a kettle, a fan, a wardrobe and a flat-screen television, and most have hardwood floors.
The arrival rule is the one thing to plan around. The pub shuts at 23:00 and you cannot check in later than that, so book your travel to land earlier. Once you have arrived you are handed a key that lets you come and go around the clock through a separate side door, which is a better deal than most small hotels offer.
Where it puts you
Bath Road is the independent shopping street running south out of the centre, with the Suffolks and Montpellier alongside it. From the door the Town Hall is four minutes, Imperial Gardens six, the Promenade and Neptune's Fountain six, and the Everyman Theatre eight. The Cheltenham Playhouse is seventy-six metres away on the same street.
Sandford Parks Lido, a big open-air heated pool, is an eight-minute walk, which turns it from a day trip into something you can do before breakfast. The racecourse at Prestbury Park is ten minutes by car. Be honest about the drawbacks too: Bath Road carries traffic, and several guests have mentioned a drain smell in a bathroom, so ask for a room away from the front if you sleep lightly.
Why Book The Bell Inn?
Cheltenham has no shortage of central rooms. Here is what this one has that they do not.
Free parking, in central Cheltenham
There is a private road up the side of the pub with free parking on it, and if it is full the staff issue a council permit for Bath Road at no cost to you. For an address this central, in a town where race weeks and festival weekends make parking a sport, that is close to unheard of.
A listed Regency inn, not a conversion
Built in 1809, Grade II listed, and described locally as the last remaining Regency inn in Cheltenham. It has been an inn the whole time, doing drinks, and rooms above. The green-tiled frontage with the name in gold tilework is the proof from the pavement.
Your own key, around the clock
The pub closes at 23:00 and you cannot arrive later than that to check in. But once you are in, you get a key to a separate side door and can come and go at any hour, which most small places will not give you.
Dogs stay free
Pets are welcome on request at no charge, with no weight limit or number cap stated. In a town that fills with racegoers and walkers heading for the Cotswold escarpment, that matters more than it sounds.
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Interesting Points About The Bell Inn
- The building dates from 1809 and is Grade II listed. Local pub records and the town's press call it the last remaining Regency inn in Cheltenham, which is a strong claim in a town that sells itself on Regency architecture, and no listing site mentions it at all.
- Cheltenham Borough Council designated the pub an Asset of Community Value in March 2025, after residents petitioned to protect it. That status gives the community a right to bid if it is ever put up for sale.
- The green-tiled ground floor is the way to find it. The name is set into the tilework in gold beneath the two front windows, under cream stucco upper floors with iron balconies and window boxes.
- It is genuinely room only. There is no breakfast and no restaurant, which contradicts the Hotel label the listing sites give it. A sandwich shop sits a few doors along the same block and Prithvi is a two-minute walk, so breakfast is a short stroll rather than a problem.
- The arrival rule is unusual and worth planning around. The pub shuts at 23:00 and you cannot check in later than that, but once you have arrived you are given a key for round-the-clock access through a separate side door.
- Parking is free beside the pub on its own private road, and if that is full the staff issue a council permit for Bath Road at no cost to you. For a central Cheltenham address that is close to unheard of.
- The Cheltenham Playhouse is 76 metres away, on the same street. It is a working theatre and not one guide connects it to this pub.
- Sandford Parks Lido, one of the largest open-air heated pools in the country, is an eight-minute walk. Most Cheltenham accommodation writing treats it as a drive.
Rooms & Accommodation at The Bell Inn
Family Room with Private Bathroom
Sofa bed · Bath and shower · Upper floor
Best for a small family or a couple who want the extra space, and the only room here with both a bath and a shower. A double bed with a sofa bed alongside, hardwood floors, a wardrobe, a kettle and a ceiling fan. It is on an upper floor reached by stairs and there is no lift. Cots are not available anywhere in the building, so it has to suit your group as it stands.
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Deluxe Double Room with Shower
Double bed · Carpeted · Sofa bed
Choose this if you want the largest of the doubles and prefer carpet underfoot to boards. A double bed with a sofa bed as well, a wardrobe, a kettle, a fan and a flat-screen television, with its own bathroom. Guests repeatedly describe the rooms here as bigger than they expected, and this is the one they usually mean. Up stairs, with no lift.
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Twin Room with Private Bathroom
Two singles · Tea and coffee · Two flights up
Works well for two friends or colleagues sharing, and it is the one room with a proper tea and coffee maker rather than just a kettle. Two singles under the windows, hardwood floors, a wardrobe and a fan. The important caveat is the climb: this room is up two flights of stairs and there is no lift, so pack light or take a different room.
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Single Room with Private Bathroom
One single · Skylight · Private bathroom
Best for a solo traveller who wants a central base and nothing they will not use. It is the smallest room here and honest guests say so, but it has its own bathroom, a wardrobe with real storage, a kettle, a fan and a skylight over the bed. For one person on a Cheltenham weekend, being six minutes from the Promenade is worth more than floor area. Up stairs, no lift.
Check PricesIs The Bell Inn Right for You?
Best Suited For
- Couples and solo travellers who want to walk everywhere and skip the breakfast they would not eat
- Racegoers and festival visitors who need a central base with parking
- Anyone travelling with a dog, which stays free
- Guests who would rather have a proper old pub downstairs than a lobby
Worth Considering Alternatives If
- You want breakfast on site. There is none, and no restaurant either
- Stairs are difficult. Every room is up them and the twin is up two flights
- You sleep lightly and cannot get a room off the front. Bath Road is busy
- You need a cot. None are available in the building
Amenities and Facilities
In Your Room
- Private bathroom with a bath or shower
- Towels, hairdryer and toilet paper
- Flat-screen TV
- Electric kettle
- Wardrobe or closet
- Fan
- Hardwood floors in most rooms, carpet in the Deluxe Double
- Sofa bed in the Family and Deluxe Double rooms
- Tea and coffee maker in the Twin
The Pub Downstairs
- Bar with seating
- Garden, sun terrace and picnic area
- Outdoor furniture
- Board games and puzzles
- Not available: Restaurant
- Not available: Breakfast
- Not available: Room service
Services
- Free Wi-Fi in public areas
- Free private parking beside the pub, with a council permit issued if full
- Accessible parking
- Bicycle parking
- Your own key for 24-hour side-door access
- Iron and ironing board on request
- Invoice provided on request
- Not available: 24-hour staffed reception
- Not available: Lift
Policies
- Dogs welcome on request, free of charge
- Non-smoking throughout
- Children of any age welcome
- Cards only: Visa, Mastercard, Maestro and Solo
- 24-hour security, CCTV in common areas, smoke alarms
- Check-in closes at 22:00 and the pub shuts at 23:00
- Not available: Cash
- Not available: Cots
Location and Getting Around
The Bell Inn stands at 70 Bath Road on the corner of the Suffolks, in the College ward of Cheltenham. Bath Road is the independent shopping street running south out of the town centre, and it puts you between the Regency core and the Montpellier and Suffolks quarter, which is where most of the town's eating and drinking happens.
Nearly everything worth seeing is a walk. The Town Hall is four minutes, Imperial Gardens six, the Promenade and Neptune's Fountain six, the Everyman Theatre and Regent Arcade eight, and the Wilson art gallery and museum eleven. The Cheltenham Playhouse is seventy-six metres along the same street, and Sandford Parks Lido is eight minutes. The racecourse is the one thing that is not walkable, at ten minutes by car.
- Cheltenham Playhouse: 76 m, 1 min walk
- Cheltenham Town Hall: 0.19 mi, 4 min walk
- Imperial Gardens: 0.27 mi, 6 min walk
- The Promenade and Neptune's Fountain: 0.29 mi, 6 min walk
- Sandford Parks Lido: 0.35 mi, 8 min walk
- Everyman Theatre: 0.36 mi, 8 min walk
- Montpellier Gardens: 0.42 mi, 9 min walk
- The Wilson art gallery and museum: 0.54 mi, 11 min walk
- Pittville Pump Room: 1.34 mi, 22 min walk
- Cheltenham Racecourse: 2.7 mi, 10 min by car
Getting to Key Locations
Photo: Philip Halling, CC BY-SA 2.0
Cheltenham Playhouse
Seventy-six metres from the door, a one-minute walk along Bath Road, the Cheltenham Playhouse is a working independent theatre that almost no guide connects to this end of town. It runs a year-round programme of drama, comedy and music in a small auditorium, which makes it the easiest possible evening out from a room upstairs at the pub: you can leave after the bar has poured your first drink and still be early.
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Photo: Rick Crowley, CC BY-SA 2.0
Sandford Parks Lido
8 min walk
About 560 metres from the door, an eight-minute walk, Sandford Parks Lido is one of the largest open-air heated pools in the country, with a fifty-metre main pool that opened in 1935 and lawns to lie on around it. It runs a summer season, roughly March to October, and being able to walk to it before breakfast is the sort of thing that turns a night in Cheltenham into a proper morning.
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Photo: Scott Woodrow, CC BY-SA 4.0
The Promenade and Imperial Gardens
6 min walk
Six minutes on foot from Bath Road, the Promenade is Cheltenham's showcase boulevard: a wide tree-lined parade of Regency terraces, with Neptune's Fountain partway along and the Imperial Gardens opening off it beside the Town Hall. This is where the town puts its festival marquees and its best shopfronts, and it is the walk that explains why people call Cheltenham a Regency town rather than just an old one.
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Photo: Stephen Richards, CC BY-SA 2.0
Pittville Pump Room and Park
2 min walk
A mile and a third north, a twenty-two-minute walk through the town, the Pittville Pump Room is the grandest surviving spa building in Cheltenham, a colonnaded Grade I hall set in a large park with lakes and lawns. The original spa water is still on show inside. The walk out to it doubles as the route racegoers take towards Prestbury Park, so it is a good way to see the northern half of the town on foot.
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Photo: Steve Daniels, CC BY-SA 2.0
Cheltenham Racecourse
10 min drive
Two and a half miles north at Prestbury Park, roughly ten minutes by car, Cheltenham Racecourse is the home of British jump racing and the single biggest influence on whether you can get a room in this town. The Festival runs Tuesday 16 to Friday 19 March 2027 and ends with the Gold Cup. The Showcase, the November Meeting, the Christmas Meeting, New Year's Day and Festival Trials Day fill the rest of the calendar.
View on MapHow to Get to The Bell Inn
- : The station is about a mile and a half west, in Lansdown, and it is not central. The quickest answer is Stagecoach service D, which takes about ten minutes into the town centre, or a five-minute taxi. On foot allow twenty to twenty-five minutes using the traffic-free Honeybourne Line path rather than the road.
- : Cheltenham Spa is served by Great Western Railway from London Paddington and by CrossCountry towards Birmingham and Bristol. Sunday services are thinner than weekdays, so check the day you are actually travelling.
- : National Express coaches call at Royal Well in the town centre, a nine-minute walk from the pub.
- : Leave the M5 at junction 11 or 11A. Junction 10 still has restricted movements and is a live building site: the scheme to make it an all-movements junction started in spring 2026 and is not expected to finish until around 2028. Once you arrive, use the private road up the side of the pub, and if it is full ask the staff for the Bath Road permit.
- : Check-in runs from 16:00 to 22:00 and the pub closes at 23:00, so you cannot check in later than that. Once you have arrived you are given a key for the side door and can come and go at any hour. Check-out is between 08:00 and 10:00.
Cheltenham for First-Time Visitors
Cheltenham is a Regency spa town on the western edge of the Cotswolds, and two things govern a visit. The first is the racecourse at Prestbury Park, two miles north, where the Cheltenham Festival in March fills the town and the villages around it. The next Festival runs Tuesday 16 to Friday 19 March 2027, and if you want to be here that week you should be booking a long way out.
The second is the festival calendar the town is named for. The Literature Festival runs 9 to 18 October 2026, and the Jazz, Science and Music festivals fill the spring and summer. Quieter than either, and steadier, is the business travel drawn by GCHQ at Benhall and the Golden Valley development beside it, which keeps midweek rooms busier than a spa town would otherwise be.
Away from the calendar it is a walking town: Regency terraces, the Promenade, Imperial and Montpellier Gardens, the Pittville Pump Room and its park, and the escarpment walks at Leckhampton Hill and Cleeve Hill, the highest point of the Cotswolds. The Wilson, the town's art gallery and museum, is free to enter and closed on Mondays, though its Arts and Crafts gallery has been shut since 1 June 2026 for works.
Watch: A Walk Through Cheltenham Town Centre
A walking tour of the Regency streets that start at the door, taking in the Suffolks and Bath Road, Montpellier, the Promenade and the Regent Arcade.
Is The Bell Inn worth it?
Yes, if you book it for what it is. A Grade II listed Regency inn of 1809, six minutes from the Promenade, with free parking beside the door and dogs staying free. The rooms are simple, bigger than most expect, and all en-suite. What you do not get is breakfast, a restaurant, a lift or a quiet street, and a few guests have hit a drain smell in a bathroom. Take a room off the front, plan to arrive before 23:00, and it is very good value for the position.
What Guests Say About The Bell Inn
Scores and review counts are aggregated from verified guest bookings on major travel platforms.
Good
The pattern is very consistent: people come for the position and they get it. Location and staff carry the scores, and the size of the rooms surprises guests in a good way. The complaints are equally consistent and worth taking seriously, because they are fixable by choosing the right room. Bath Road is busy with the window open, and several guests have reported a drain or damp smell in a bathroom. The room-only arrangement also catches out anyone who assumed breakfast.
Says the pub was exactly what he expected, with a clean, comfortable room and the basics covered, in a great position in the middle of town. His one note was that it is room only, so no breakfast.
2026-08-18Called it an excellent base for the town centre festivals. There was some street noise with the window open, but nothing he had not expected on a road like this.
2026-08-17Rated the position for getting around the town, and found it easy to pick up a good breakfast nearby given the room-only arrangement. The welcome was friendly and she would use it again. Her single room was on the small side, though she was careful to say that was not really a complaint, and it did have storage.
2026-08-16Described it as a quaint little place in a lovely part of Cheltenham, though she felt the price was a touch steep for what it is.
2026-08-03Praised the location, a huge room, clean sheets and towels, friendly staff and easy access. Against that, the room faced a busy road and smelled of drains, which was enough that one night was all she wanted.
2026-08-03Thought it good value for what you get, with a generously sized room. The bathroom felt damp.
2026-07-08Summed it up as basic but good value and friendly, and singled out the staff as helpful.
2026-07-20Found it very convenient and refreshingly straightforward. His one gripe was a smell from the bathroom drain.
2026-08-10Good to Know Before You Book
It is room only, and there is no restaurant
No breakfast is served and there is no kitchen for guests. A sandwich shop trades a few doors along the same block, Prithvi is a two-minute walk down Bath Road, and the cafes of Montpellier and the Suffolks start within ten minutes. Plan breakfast out and the arrangement works in your favour.
Arrive by 23:00, then you have your own key
Check-in runs from 16:00 to 22:00 and the pub closes at 23:00, so a later arrival cannot be checked in. Once you are in you are given a key for a separate side door and can come and go at any hour.
Every room is up stairs and there is no lift
The twin is up two flights. Accessible parking is provided but a step-free entrance and an adapted bathroom are not documented, so ring the pub first if you need either.
Ask for a room away from the front
Bath Road carries traffic, and several guests have mentioned a drain or damp smell in a bathroom. Both are worth raising when you book rather than after you arrive.
Photos of The Bell Inn
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. There is a private road up the side of the pub with free parking on it and no need to reserve. If it is full the staff issue a council parking permit for Bath Road at no cost to you. Accessible parking is also listed. No maximum vehicle height is stated.
No. The Bell Inn is room only, with no breakfast and no restaurant, despite the Hotel label some listing sites give it. A sandwich shop trades a few doors along the same block and Prithvi is about two minutes' walk down Bath Road, with more choice in Montpellier and the Suffolks within ten minutes.
Yes. Pets are welcome on request and stay free of charge. No weight limit or maximum number is stated, so mention your dog when you book.
You can check in between four and ten in the evening, and check-out runs from eight until ten in the morning. Children of any age are welcome and there is no minimum age for the person checking in.
Every room has its own bathroom with a bath or shower. There is no lift and all the rooms are up stairs, with the twin up two flights. A step-free entrance and an adapted bathroom are not documented, so contact the pub directly if you need them.
Cheltenham Town Hall is a four-minute walk, Imperial Gardens six, and the Promenade with Neptune's Fountain six. The Everyman Theatre and the Regent Arcade are eight minutes and the Wilson art gallery and museum eleven. The Cheltenham Playhouse is seventy-six metres away on the same street.
The station sits about a mile and a half west in Lansdown, so it is not a quick stroll. Stagecoach service D takes about ten minutes into the town centre, a taxi about five, and the walk twenty to twenty-five minutes along the traffic-free Honeybourne Line path.
You cannot check in after 23:00, because that is when the pub shuts. Plan your arrival earlier. Once you have checked in you are given a key for a separate side door, so you can come and go at any hour after that.
About two and a half miles north, roughly ten minutes by car. It is not a walk. The Stagecoach D and E corridor runs between the town centre and the racecourse, which is useful on race days. The next Cheltenham Festival runs from Tuesday 16 to Friday 19 March 2027.
Cancellation and prepayment conditions vary by room and rate, and the exact terms for your choice are shown before you confirm. Payment is by card only: Visa, Mastercard, Maestro and Solo are accepted and cash is not.
Yes. It was built in 1809 and is Grade II listed, and local records describe it as the last remaining Regency inn in Cheltenham. Cheltenham Borough Council designated it an Asset of Community Value in March 2025 after residents petitioned to protect it.
The Cheltenham Playhouse, a working theatre, is seventy-six metres away. Sandford Parks Lido, one of the largest open-air heated pools in the country, is an eight-minute walk and runs a summer season. Bath Road itself is a run of independent shops, and the Suffolks and Montpellier begin a few minutes further on.
Other Stays in Gloucestershire and the Cotswolds
Alice Guest House, Cheltenham
The other Cheltenham option on our list, a small guest house for a quieter, more personal stay.
The Fox Inn, Hawkesbury Upton
About twenty-four miles south, a village inn on the Cotswold Way for walking rather than town life.
The Stag Rooms, Alcester
Twenty-four miles north east in Warwickshire, for a second stop working across the Cotswolds and Shakespeare country.
Ready to Stay on Bath Road?
Four rooms above a listed Regency inn, six minutes from the Promenade, free parking beside the door and dogs staying free. Festival weeks go early. Check your dates now.
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