One of Coventry’s oldest surviving pubs has been given a new use after closing its doors, with rooms inside the historic Old Ball on Walsgrave Road now being advertised to rent.
The Old Ball is a familiar sight at the top of Ball Hill and has stood there in one form or another for more than 200 years.
Its importance to the area goes further than that.
Local historians believe Ball Hill itself took its name from the pub.
Now, after a period in which its future looked uncertain, the building has been refurbished and accommodation inside is being offered to students and professionals.
An online property listing describes the building as a “large purpose built historic property” which has been completely refurbished.
Rooms have previously been advertised from around £599 a month, while a self-contained studio was listed this month at £649 a month with bills included.
The pub that gave Ball Hill its name
The history of the Old Ball stretches back to a time when this part of Coventry looked very different.
Before rows of shops, takeaways and traffic filled Walsgrave Road, the area was a small settlement known as Stoke Knob.
The Coventry Society says there was little more than a scattering of cottages, a chapel and a pub then known as the Ball Inn.
The surrounding area was commonly referred to as “The Ball”, with the name Ball Hill appearing later.
Coventry pub historian Fred Luckett records an advertisement offering the pub to let in February 1802.
Another newspaper reference from 1834 advertised pigeon shooting at the pub following Stoke Races.
By the early 20th century it had become known as the Old Ball Hotel, with major alterations carried out around 1907.
Coventry City Council’s local heritage list records the building at 62 Walsgrave Road as dating partly from around the 18th century, with later additions from around 1910.
So when people say “Ball Hill” today, the name they are using may ultimately trace back to the pub still standing at the top of it.
Old Ball closed after more than two centuries
The pub’s recent history has been much less certain.
CAMRA records the Old Ball as long-term closed, saying it shut in May 2025 after initially being advertised for a new tenant.
It was later removed from Admiral Taverns’ available premises.
The closure came after periods under different management and concern that the pub might never reopen.
At a time when pubs across Coventry and the rest of the country have been disappearing, another historic building being boarded up understandably worried people who knew it.
The Old Ball was never just a random modern pub occupying a retail unit.
It is one of the few physical links left to what Ball Hill looked like before Coventry expanded around it.
Rooms now advertised inside refurbished building
The building has since undergone extensive refurbishment.
Rental adverts for the Walsgrave Road property describe 11 private en-suite rooms, aimed at students and professionals, with bills and broadband included.
Each en-suite room has a private bathroom with residents sharing kitchen facilities.
A separate ground-floor studio has also been advertised with its own kitchen and bathroom.
The September studio listing gives a monthly rent of £649 and describes the property as having recently been completely refurbished.
It also lists a communal kitchen and roof terrace among the facilities.
Property records also show the Old Ball at Walsgrave Road changed hands for £395,000 in April 2025.
Companies House records show Oak Hill Midlands Ltd director Mohammad Musa using the Old Ball Hotel, 62 Walsgrave Road, as a correspondence address from October 2025.
A very different future for an old Coventry landmark
For anyone who remembers drinking there, seeing bedrooms advertised inside the Old Ball will probably take some getting used to.
But the alternative for many old pubs is far worse.
Coventry has already lost historic pub buildings entirely.
The Black Horse at Spon End, another roughly 200-year-old Coventry pub, was demolished in 2023 to make way for road changes despite opposition from heritage groups and residents.
The Old Ball is still standing.
Its days as a traditional local pub appear to be over, but the building which helped give an entire part of Coventry its name has survived and found another use.
Ball Hill has changed enormously since the days when the Ball Inn stood among cottages and open land.
This might be one of its biggest changes yet.
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