Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Author: admin

  • Norwich – Former St. Peter’s Methodist Church

    Norwich – Former St. Peter’s Methodist Church

    This is the former St. Peter’s Methodist Church on Park Lane in Norwich, currently being redeveloped.

    The photo is a little wonky as I had to put my phone over the fence to get an unobstructed view. But, what is visible here is the former frontage of the Wesleyan Methodist Church (see http://www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/norwichparklanemeth/St.Peter’s-Old%20Chapel(1d4).jpg) and this was all bricked over in the 1960s to create a flat frontage.

    This was the frontage and I have to say, the developers have done the building a huge favour in revealing what was once here. The developers of this site are turning the two former church buildings into residential properties, although they’ve run into some difficulties with the council. According to the EDP, Norwich City Council demanded £507,000 as a contribution towards affordable housing and the property developers offered £371,800. Anyway, after lots of negotiations and debate, Norwich City Council accepted £167,108. I mean, what an expert negotiation that was, £200,000 lower than the first offer. Anyway, I won’t get political here.

  • Buses – How Hard is It?

    Buses – How Hard is It?

    Before it looks judgemental, I’ve edited the above photo as I’m not interested in social shaming. I can be judgemental, but that’s normally about chicken bakes and craft beer. To be honest, I must admit that I thought First’s solution to make it obvious where to sit was pretty clear and simple. They’ve put wraps around the seats they don’t want used and huge signs saying that. It seems that perhaps that they might need to do more when one younger member of the public came to sit on a wrapped off seat… To be fair, they’d probably had a long day and just wanted to sit down, I find the directional arrows in Tesco to be entirely confusing so I can’t complain about mistakes by others.

    Anyway, my post isn’t about that, it’s that I was more humoured by the reaction from two other passengers nearby, both who tutted relatively quietly (they were moderately annoyed, but not enough to say anything out loud) and stared at the person for a good number of seconds before moving to other seats themselves. That seemed a particularly British solution that satisfied everyone.

    As an aside, there’s something moderately nice about sitting down and knowing that I’ll have lots of space around me, it’s making public transport feel much more comfortable. Although financially unsustainable….

  • Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day 106

    Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day 106

    The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue was first published at the end of the eighteenth century, and given that the current health crisis is giving too much time to read books, I thought I’d pick a daily word from it until I got bored….

    Draper

    The dictionary defines this as “an ale draper, an alehouse keeper”, the word origin is ‘draper’ meaning cloth and is usually referred to as a seller of textiles and fabrics. It gives the alehouse keeper something of an artisan feel though when used like this.

    The word was used in this manner, to describe publicans, from as early as the sixteenth century, but it had started to fall out of usage by the middle of the nineteenth century.

  • Norwich – Heigham Park

    Norwich – Heigham Park

    We meandered into Heigham Park on a group walk and it’s a park that I’ve never been to before. The decision to construct it was made in around 1919 as there was a plan to build on the former Heigham Playing Fields site and the council wanted some space devoted to a public park. That was some forward planning from the council and other projects from the same period include Wensum Park, Waterloo Park, Eaton Park and Mile Cross Gardens.

    There was originally a fountain and pool near to the sole entrance to the gardens, but this has now been filled in to become a large garden feature. The park feels quite spacious, but they’re only 2.5 hectares in size and they’re bordered on all sides by residential properties. Work started on the gardens in 1921 and they were completed in 1924 when the public was allowed entry.

    The Friends of Heigham Park have a useful and interesting web-site, with much more information about the park’s history. Anyway, photos from the walk:

  • Hoveton – St. Peter’s Church

    Hoveton – St. Peter’s Church

    Unusually, this church was built in the early part of the seventeenth century, in 1624. Its location, near to Hoveton Hall, seems to suggest it was more constructed for the country house rather than for the people of Hoveton. They also didn’t need a church, they already had St. John’s which was actually near to the settlement of Hoveton.

    There is the possibility that the settlement of Hoveton St. Peter might have been larger and once had a church of its own, but no-one is quite sure where this might have been located.

    The building itself was ‘modernised’ internally in the 1880s, but externally, the church is nearly entirely unchanged since it was built.

    The only change to the building is that the north door has been blocked, but the thatched roof remains and this feels like a little bit of a hidden treasure in the Norfolk countryside.

  • Norwich – Las Iguanas

    Norwich – Las Iguanas

    And that’s another restaurant in Norwich permanently closed, the Latin American themed Las Iguanas on Wherry Road. Located near to Coast to Coast, which also permanently closed a few weeks ago, Las Iguanas is closing as a result of the Casual Dining Group going into administration. A little surprisingly, both Bella Italias in Norwich are staying open, although many are closing around the rest of the country.

  • Norwich – The Chip Shop (Stafford Street)

    Norwich – The Chip Shop (Stafford Street)

    Not the most innovative of chip shop names, but I’ve heard positive things about this location and their reviews are broadly glowing in praise. Before I start, I’ll get my pet hate out of the way, which is businesses that don’t take cards. Although I have no complaint as they can run their business how they want, it means I won’t go back. The number of locations that don’t take cards is now so small that customers expect it, and in my view, local businesses need to fight back against the sea of monotony that is offered by some chains.

    Indeed, Amex is running their usual December offer early, so any customer visiting a chip shop (or any small business which accepts Amex) with that offer will get £5 for free if they spend £10. More and more market traders are accepting cards and any business which doesn’t seems destined to need a large sign visible in their window or on entrance telling customers they don’t accept cards. And, that was the case here, the first marketing message in the shop was “cash only”. Although to be fair, the shop wasn’t quiet, the trade was steady.

    The service was polite and efficient, with the social distancing system being a little unclear (over half the customers got it wrong), but the staff were verbally explaining it. The price for battered sausage and small chips was £2.60, which is below average and the portion of chips was substantial. There was a moderate customer service failing in that they wrapped the whole lot up, even though I wanted it unwrapped, and didn’t offer salt and vinegar.

    But, the chips were excellent, fluffy on the interior, slightly firm on the exterior and they had a pleasant taste. The sausage content was a little generic, but it tasted fine and the batter seemed freshly made, was golden and had a richness of flavour.

    So, I can understand why they have the reputation that they have, there’s a focus on the food and all seemed fine with perfectly good value for money. The locals are fortunate to have this chip shop here, it is clearly well respected in the area.

  • Norwich – UEA Walk

    Norwich – UEA Walk

    Just some photos in this post….. This is from our group walk which covered part of the lake at the UEA and some of their sculptures. More of these next week when we explore the rest of the lake and sculptures area.

    Incidentally, the dog was rather sweet. He just sat in the lake like that for some time, the owner said that he was wondering if his dog thought that he was a crocodile.

     

  • West Lynn – West Lynn War Memorial

    West Lynn – West Lynn War Memorial

    West Lynn’s war memorial is located within the churchyard of St. Peter’s church and was unveiled in 1920. It is made out of Bath Stone and there were 25 names from the First World War and 4 names from the Second World War. Over recent decades it has become harder to read the names on the memorial, so new black plaques have recently been installed to make the names clear. When these new plaques were added, historic research meant that 10 additional names were added from the First World War, bringing the total to 35.

  • Flixbus Coming to UK

    Flixbus Coming to UK

    It’s fair to say that Flixbus (above photo is of their coach which took me from Torun to Warsaw a few months ago) for some time considerably annoyed me, managing to leave from the wrong coach stop at the wrong time with coaches that rarely worked properly. Much of this is because they partnered with coach companies across Europe who were of varying quality, but my more recent trips have been much better. I now like them and feel reassured by them.

    But, anyway, the company have now announced that they’re coming to the UK and this is likely bad news for National Express and Megabus. Although it’s probably more devastating for National Express, who have been charging ridiculous fares on some routes for years because they could and stinging passengers with little extra costs all over the place.

    Anyway, Flixbus are starting from routes to and from London, but will likely expand. They are also experienced in running open access rail networks in the European Union, and they will probably make public transport better integrated. All told, it’s all good news for passengers and might kick National Express into focusing a little more on customer service.