A trip to Tile Hill back in the nineties was probably not for the faint hearted. Apart from the odd foray into Balsall Common and Meriden, Coventry pubs have been conspicuous by their absence on the blog.
One of my work colleagues back in the nineties, who was a Coventrian himself, would describe Tile Hill as ‘Bandit territory’ when we used to weave our way through it towards the A45 on regular jaunts to Northampton. This may well have been some ‘inter-suburb banter’ but his message was clear enough – have a drink somewhere else!
Twenty five years on and it’s still close to leafy areas such as Burton Green and the aforementioned Balsall Common but there have been big changes.
The iconic Massey Ferguson building has long since gone and been replaced by housing and the imposing Maxims casino has also bitten the dust and is, ironically, being used as a church.
I suspect Coventry, like the rest of the Midlands, has lost a lot of those pubs from the nineties but it always seemed to do big roadside pubs better than most other areas.
(Tile Hill shopping centre to the right…)
Big boozers are its speciality so I was glad to see that Tile Hill still has a decent sized one in its centre.
355 – Bell Inn CV4 9HS has actually been given heritage asset status by Coventry city council and there has been a pub listed on this site since 1851.
This incidentally, is the last time Coventry City owned their stadium or won a major trophy. Actually, that’s not strictly true and who can forget the ‘Gary Mabbutt own goal’ FA Cup Final of 1987 and this boozer hasn’t as the Sky Blues victorious team is pictured in the bar.
Actually, apart from me and one other bloke in the bar, it was quiet but there was lots of noise in the lounge, Coventrians always like to be different!
(large group just out of shot on left)
However, considering it is around 2pm on a Monday then there is a reasonable crowd in and a large group of 50/60/70 somethings are making their presence felt in the lounge.
Unconfirmed rumours that it was a subversive day out for the Beer and Pubs Forum have yet to be substantiated.
One of the group was leaving with a walking frame and he was getting plenty of stick with one particular sage warning him not to hit the accelerator button otherwise he’d end up in Canley!
It’s listed on Whatpub as being a Mitchells and Butlers boozer but that’s not the case as it’s changed hands to Milton Pubs and Taverns (a new one on me) but the menu didn’t appear to have any food over £8 so it is clearly playing to the fact it is a local and the atmosphere was excellent.
No signs of any bandits; it was a gentle pace of life with sky sports all around. And plenty of people drinking a variety of different drinks.
I had an IPA (Greene King) which came in at £2.45 but after the barmaid had deducted my 70 pence parking charge it cost me £1.75 which is Wetherspoonsesque (if there is such a word).
Food is on the agenda but this place, which had a huge lounge, did feel as though it was set up for drinking as opposed to dining.
However, one of the bonuses of a quiet bar means you can have the run of the place to take some photos and tick off your checklist for traditional boozers.
Pool table – check,
dart board – check, bench seating – check, jukebox – check,
fruit machines – check, sky sports – check, beermats – check, carpet that only trad pubs seem to have – check,
boxing style memorabilia on the walls – check, football team picture on the walls – check, (Wasps don’t seem to have had the same impact in Tile Hill) barstools – check, Six Nations Flags on the ceiling in February – check.
A good solid pub with a good core of friendly locals, decent priced beer and food, lots of chimney pots in close proximity and on bus routes and near to the train station.
Hopefully the Bell Inn can keep its tills ringing for many years to come.
You really do visit the place other bloggers don’t reach !
I drove past there recently and thought how far away from the “beer bubble” it looked !
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Yes I didn’t hear too much chat about beer strength, craft, keg or whisky infused IPA…just normal people having a laugh and escaping from everyday monotony!
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What happens if you ring twice? 😳
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The Bandits arrive! 😀
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It appears that Milton Pubs and Taverns is basically a real estate investment company:
https://www.thecaterer.com/articles/506336/aprirose-acquires-73-mitchells-butlers-pubs
I have to say your title slightly confused me, as when anyone mentions “bandits” in the context of pubs, my first thought is fruit machines, which this one obviously does have.
You can just imagine the existential terror that many Shoreditch denizens would experience if they were decanted into this pub 😮
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Does a real estate investment company mean that in the next ten years they will be closing it down? Ha ha yes I think it may be a little unsettling for them!
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Great to see a proper Coventry entry landing after those Balsall Common and Meriden near misses!
To prove to Martin that other bloggers do reach Tile Hill, here’s a post I did back in 2008 (although admittedly the Bell only gets the briefest of mentions) – http://wmexplorer.blogspot.com/2008/01/on-trail-of-boon.html. The Bell was perfectly decent back then and it looks like not a lot has changed; I would suggest that for real Tile Hill bandit territory you’d need to go to Tile Hill North and explore the area around Jardine Crescent. Sadly the New Star has long been demolished (http://realalerambles.co.uk/history/N/new_star_jardine.html) but the Black Prince might still be going for some real Coventry hardcore – as long as you show appreciation for Brian Kilcline you should be alright!
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Killer kilcline will get lots of tlc along with Micky Gynn who was a pub legend! Yes you’re right jardine crescent was well known back in the day…good effort on a tile hill basic boozer 👍 I’m going to have to work hard to get any WM pubs past you 😉
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The Black Prince has a spectacularly uninformative entry on WhatPub (even though it achieves a 100% completeness score). But it does seem to be still open.
https://whatpub.com/pubs/COV/3330/black-prince-coventry
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Usually a sure fire sign it’s an estate pub not selling cask and very non Shoreditch!
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The black prince is still very much open, went there about 11 months ago for the sake of it because i was bored. All these places are about a mile from me. Obviously keg-only, cov city sports memorabilia on the walls, most people in it were quite old. The interior is almost heritage
-registry intact; no alterations at all.
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Top stuff. I used to drive through there a lot years ago and lived in Balsall Common so not a million miles away. There were/are some proper boozers in Coventry like the one you’ve jus mentioned.
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Nice post. Even I might just have forced down GK IPA at that price. Coventry is quite an interesting place for pubs. Earlier this season I saw a (football) match at Coventry Rugby Club- real ale in the clubhouse and interesting to see all the rugby memorabilia and caps (eg David Duckham’s), even for someone with little interest in egg chasing.
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Coventry has always been quite a big rugby city which is why I suspect Wasps moved there…
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That sort of franchising doesn’t feel right – especially for the long standing Wasps fans.
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I agree it is MK Dons and it completely rewrites history
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Cov has a modern/medieval centre, a small outer ring of Victorian stuff and a large outer ring of 1930s development, with a few postwar estates thrown in. The suburban pubs are almost all tudorbethan improved, most knocked through (except the biggin hall which is intact). There’s some decent blitz/reconstruction survivors in the centre, but most of the interesting wet-led ones are inbetween. Chapelfields, despite undergoing a pub cull, a few years back (rip black horse, butts retreat and malt shovel) has a very high density of down to earth wet-led boozers. Broomfield, hersall tavern, nursery, dyers arms, craven arms.
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I will pencil all of those in and much appreciated. Thanks for commenting and I’ll make sure I get myself to Coventry a bit more regularly. Is the Four P’s still open? I remember going there a few times with one of my pals back in the day…
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The four ps is still open, but keg only. Marstons, for some reason, sold off the albany (earlsdon, but close by) to someone who’s trashed the interior and taken out the cask. This was an odd decision because they went on a buying/spending spree a couple of years later and aquired/refurbed about three others in the city. M amd B own most of the tudorbethan suburban pubs, which is quite good as they seem to be pushing cask into places that have been keg only in the past and would still be if they were tenanted.
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Yes M&B Ember Inn boozers in Solihull have cask on in places it wouldn’t normally have been seen. You’re selling Cov to me – I intend to make a day of it!!
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