This pub is not only a grade II listed building, it is also a One Star pub on CAMRA’s Inventory as a pub of Special National Historic Interest, and the description is as follows: “A four-storey corner pub, right opposite the magnificent Christ Church, Spitalfields and Spitalfields Market. The outside could do with a little sprucing up but at least it retains the insignia of the former owners, the major brewers, Truman, Hanbury and Buxton who operated from Brick Lane nearby. The interior has been gutted to make a smart bar but the pub is included here for its wall tiling of around 1900. On the left, just inside what would have been an entrance corridor, is a tiled mural entitled ‘Spitalfields in ye Olden Time – Visiting a Weaver’s Shop’. Here we have a prosperous-looking lady and gent (complete with young black servant) surrounded by deferential locals, inspecting a piece of cloth. Spitalfields was a centre of the silk-weaving industry established by Huguenots. The mural is signed ‘W B Simpson & Sons. 100. S. Martins Lane. LONDON’. Simpson’s were responsible for a great many tiling schemes in pubs a century or so ago. Otherwise there are large tiled panels with swirling blue and white Arabesque decoration.”

The listing description is as follows: “Founded 1666 but present building mid C19. Stucco facade. Eaves cornice with balustraded parapet above. Roof not visible. 4 storeys with angled corner. Facade to Fournier Street of 2 windows, alternate round headed and triangular pediments to 1st and 2nd floor windows, bands between. Pilasters to sides and angles of building. Ground floor has polished granite pilasters with stuccoed capitals and end stops. Corner door behind fluted pillars with composite capitals. Similar facade to Commercial Street has 3 windows. Inside Commercial Street entrance is a fine coloured C19 tiled plaque showing an C18/C19 street scene. The Drinking Fountain and Trough, and the 5 Bollards form a group with Christ Church and the Ten Bells Public House.”

Note also inside the pub near the Fournier Street entrance a painting on canvas entitled ‘Spitalfields in Modern Time’.

The WhatPub link is here: WhatPub/Ten Bells

The PHG link is here: PHG/Ten Bells

The Ten Bells featured on the Evening Crawl of EC2, EC3 and EC4 in December 2003, the Daytime Crawl of SW Essex and E London in June 2006, was a "try also" on the Breweries and Markets Past and Present: Evening Crawl of Shoreditch, Bethnal Green and Spitalfields in December 2009, and featured on the The Truman Show: Evening Tour of Former Truman's Pubs in Spitalfields and Whitechapel in April 2024.