The Bell hotel in Epping has seen a lot since it was built in the 16th century as a coaching inn, serving travellers passing through the historic Essex market town and on to London, 15 miles to the south-west. This has long been a place that bustled with outsiders, though they have not always been welcome – the small green common opposite was once named after a beacon that local stories say was built to warn of invasion.
Though now wrapped in ugly 1960s extensions that have stripped it of anything approaching charm, the unassuming building – close to agricultural land and a cricket pitch – is an unlikely place to spark a potential political crisis.
