Search for padel in Hinckley and you’ll find a couple of directory sites claiming the leisure centre or the squash club has a court. They don’t. We checked directly with both – Hinckley Leisure Centre’s sports hall runs badminton, pickleball, football, netball and volleyball, and Hinckley Squash & Racketball Club is exactly what the name says. No padel court in the town, full stop. What Hinckley does have is impressively good timing: a brand new eight-court venue is opening six miles away in a couple of weeks.

Does Hinckley have padel courts?

No. Hinckley has no operating padel courts as of July 2026, despite some directory listings wrongly suggesting the leisure centre has one.

Hinckley sits in an unusual spot – a solid-sized Leicestershire market town with decent leisure infrastructure, wedged almost exactly between Leicester, Coventry and Nuneaton, and yet none of that infrastructure includes padel. The leisure centre at Argents Mead is a good facility, recently rebuilt, but its racket sports are badminton and pickleball. The squash club on Maple Drive is a proper old-school member’s club, one of the county’s oldest, and proudly squash-only.

If a Hinckley venue does turn up, a leisure-centre conversion or a repurposed tennis court is the most likely route, going by how it’s happened in comparable towns. Nothing like that is currently in planning, as far as we can find.

What’s opening just up the road

Core Padel opens in Nuneaton on 18 July 2026, six miles from Hinckley, with eight indoor courts – the biggest padel venue in the area.

This is the one worth circling on a calendar. Core Padel Nuneaton – Unit 1-5, Century Park, Ballin Road, Nuneaton CV10 9GA – opens on Saturday 18 July 2026 with seven indoor doubles courts and one singles court, plus a gym, studio space, social area and café. It’s being built specifically to serve the wider catchment: Nuneaton, Bedworth, Hinckley and Coventry all get a name-check in the venue’s own launch coverage.

Six miles from Hinckley, about 15 minutes by car via the A47 and A444, it’s the closest padel is going to get without Hinckley building its own courts. Bookings run through Playtomic – the club is already listed there, though as of early July it’s showing as “coming soon” with no slots open yet. Worth setting a reminder to check back nearer the 18th, because eight courts opening at once from a standing start tend to fill up fast in their first few weeks.

There’s a second Nuneaton project in the pipeline too: Te Amo Padel, planned for the Grayson Place development in the town centre, with indoor and outdoor courts plus a mezzanine lounge bar. The council and operator have exchanged contracts, but there’s no confirmed opening date yet – it’s still at the fit-out stage. One to watch rather than plan around for now.

Leicester: the bigger alternative, 15 miles out

Leicester has multiple padel venues around 15 miles from Hinckley, including a 7-court centre due to open in Thurmaston during 2026.

If Nuneaton’s court count still isn’t enough, or you’re after more flexibility on booking times, Leicester is about 30 minutes up the A47. The city’s padel scene has grown fast over the past year – Manor Padel Club in Tur Langton, PadelGo at Knights Close, and Pulse Padel opening in Kirby Muxloe with five courts and a proper social setup. Leicester Padel Club is also on the way in Thurmaston, seven indoor courts that will be the largest facility in the county when it opens. Full details, pricing and booking links are in our Leicester padel guide.

Coventry: the other direction, 18 miles out

Coventry has two padel venues around 18 miles from Hinckley: Padel Studios in Exhall and CNWSC, the city’s original court.

Coventry sits slightly further out at around 29 minutes by car, but it’s a straightforward run down the A444 – the same road that takes you to Nuneaton, so it’s easy to combine a trip or scope out both on the same drive. Padel Studios in Exhall has three courts and a decent café setup; CNWSC is smaller and more old-school, but it’s where the city’s padel scene started. See our Coventry padel guide for the full picture on both.

Which one should you book?

For most Hinckley-based players, Nuneaton from 18 July is the obvious default once it’s open – closest by some distance, brand new courts, and enough capacity that booking shouldn’t be a fight in the way it can be at smaller single-court venues. Until then, Leicester and Coventry are both viable weekday-evening trips if you don’t want to wait, and both have more established social scenes and beginner sessions already running.

If you haven’t played before, there’s no reason to wait for Hinckley’s own courts to arrive – Leicester and Coventry both run regular sessions built for first-timers, and turning up already having played a few times will make the most of whichever court opens closest to home first. Our guide to finding a padel court near you covers how to search more widely if none of these fit your schedule.

We’ll update this guide the moment Core Padel’s courts go live for booking – and sooner if anything concrete emerges for Hinckley itself.

For court guides in other parts of the UK, browse the full directory of towns we cover.