Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Author: admin

  • London – British Museum (1500s Map of Nordovicum)

    London – British Museum (1500s Map of Nordovicum)

    I usually visit the British Museum three or four times a year, something which is a little difficult to do with the current virus situation, primarily because it’s shut. However, they’ve placed hundreds of thousands of images on their web-site, so this will have to do me for the moment. The images can be used non-commercially, as long as the British Museum is credited. So, this is their credit.

    Clicking on the above image will bring up a larger version. It’s one of the better known plans of Norwich (or Nordovicum), issued at some point after 1581. It’s been in the British Museum collections for so long they don’t know when they got it, but it was before 1811.

    Anyway, it’s gorgeous. At the top is Bishopgate Bridge, when it still had its gate, and Cow Tower is visible to the left of that. To the bottom, at number 14, is “Hell Gates”, which is more usually called Heigham Gate, but I prefer the version on this plan of the city. And near number 17, which is St. Stephen’s Gate, is near where the St. Stephen’s outlet of Greggs is now located.

  • London – British Museum (Ephesus Takeaway Menu)

    London – British Museum (Ephesus Takeaway Menu)

    I usually visit the British Museum three or four times a year, something which is a little difficult to do with the current virus situation, primarily because it’s shut. However, they’ve placed hundreds of thousands of images on their web-site, so this will have to do me for the moment. The images can be used non-commercially, as long as the British Museum is credited. So, this is their credit.

    This is perhaps one of the more surprising items in the collections of the British Museum, a takeaway menu from Ephesus on Rose Lane in Norwich. It was given to the museum by St John Simpson, who is a curator specialising in items from the Middle East. Perhaps I’ll send the British Museum a nice JD Wetherspoon menu for their collection. Unsurprisingly, the museum hasn’t put this on display.

  • Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day Forty-Seven

    Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day Forty-Seven

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

    Bubble and Squeak

    This phrase still survives and is in common usage, but at the beginning of the nineteenth century it was defined as “beef and cabbage fried together”, which somehow has changed to potato and cabbage. The origins of the phrase are literal, the ingredients – well mainly the cabbage – bubble up and squeak as they’re cooked.

    A ‘recipe’ from the 1890s said to “mash four potatoes, chop a plateful of cold greens, season with a small saltspoonful of salt and the same of pepper; mix well together and fry in dissolved dripping. Cut about three quarters of a pound of cold boiled beef into neat, thin slices. Fry slightly over a slow fire for six minutes, put the vegetables round the dish and the meat in the centre. Serve very hot”. Sounds bloody awful.

    In the 1920s and 1930s the beef in the dish continued, but seemed to be replaced by sausages by the 1930s and 1940s. After the 1950s, it seemed to just become potato and cabbage, so who knows what it might become by the end of this century. Hopefully remove the cabbage and potato and just add a chicken bake.

  • Streets of Norwich – Barrack Street

    Streets of Norwich – Barrack Street

    Part of my Streets of Norwich project….

    Barrack Street at the beginning of the twentieth century and the road line is still there, although the junction at Cowgate is now a large roundabout. It’s named after the cavalry barracks that are still visible on the above map.

    Starting at the Cowgate / St. Crispins Road roundabout.

    St James the Less Church, which is perhaps better known today as Norwich Puppet Theatre. More on this church in another post, as I’ve been on a guided tour of the church and I have photos somewhere of that. This is pretty much all of old Norwich that has survived the mauling about of Barrack Street and the church looks a bit lost today.

    More recently, this has been a light industrial area with an ugly building facing the road. It’s now a housing development being built by Hill.

    At the moment, these buildings have been left looking rather forlorn. It’s the two white buildings at 77-79 Barrack Street that are interesting, they’re listed (which probably annoys the owners) and are terraced houses dating from the beginning of the nineteenth century. As long as no-one has nicked them, the interiors are also important, with a cast-iron hob grate within a timber surround and a rare fireplace inside them. The premises were used as a fish and chip shop until recently, they’re really not in a good state externally.

    Opposite these properties on the other side of the road is Bargate Court, but more on this in a later post.

    This is now the head office of QD.

    And the other side of the building and the paved area on the right is the entrance to what was once Pockthorpe Brewery, which was a substantial complex of buildings. When they built houses here in 1976, they did an archaeological survey and probably started with some high hopes of finding something new. The report stated “we revealed no finds or features of archaeological interest”. Thrilling. But best to check.

    A few years ago they pulled down some council housing, which was in perfectly good nick, and then left the site vacant for years. It wasn’t a good look…. It’s part of the same Hill housing development which is now finally under construction and it’ll be known as St. James’s Quay.

    Now a dentists, this was the Sportman pub from the early nineteenth century until its closure in 1995, when it was used as a solicitors. It replaced a pub of the same name which was located across the road.

    And yet more of the Hill site that will be housing in the next few years. There’s not a huge amount of history lost here, as previously it was a light industrial site for some time and before then it was a timber yard and wharf area.

    The former barracks site, now turned into generic looking housing. It’s a little unfortunate that they demolished the barracks in the 1960s, as the site would have made for an impressive museum location. Although the city council would probably only turned it into another bloody car park, so perhaps it’s better that it’s housing.

    The barrack site again, it was built on the site of Hassett House at the end of the eighteenth century and was known as Cavalry Barracks and then Nelson Barracks.

    Former barracks site on the right, there’s now a gym over on the left-hand side. Again, there wasn’t much here before, unlike the other end of Barrack Street, they haven’t demolished a load of housing.

    A pretty mundane looking wall which has been brightened, or worsened depending on your point of view, with some paint.

    This is a better looking wall, it’s from Hassett House.

    And, this was a former entrance to the barrack buildings, although it has been landscaped so there’s now nothing behind here other than soil. It’s also where the entrance to Hassett House would have been, and for a period of time, the tower over the other side of the Wensum River was known now as Cow Tower, but as Hassett Tower.

  • Streets of Norwich – Telegraph Lane West

    Streets of Norwich – Telegraph Lane West

    Part of my Streets of Norwich project….

    Leading on from Gas Hill, Telegraph Road is split into East and West, divided by Quebec Street.

    The entrance to the street from the Gas Hill end.

    St. Matthew’s Church.

    This is the only listed building, well structure, in this part of Norwich, which is the war memorial that was originally unveiled on 25 September 1921. It has been shunted about a bit as the church is new and some bloody idiot vandalised it, but it’s all been repaired and fixed up. The memorial commemorates 128 servicemen who lost their lives during the First World War.

    Like being in the countryside….

    That’s a slightly abrupt installation of a garage door onto the frontage of an older building. But, whatever works…

  • Streets of Norwich – Britannia Road

    Streets of Norwich – Britannia Road

    Part of my Streets of Norwich project….

    The first part of this road, when approaching from Kett’s Hill, consists of early twentieth century residential properties.

    Then things become a bit more exciting, with Norwich prison appearing in view. This was formerly the site of the Britannia military barracks, which is where the street takes it name from. The barracks were constructed between 1885 and 1887, with the Royal Norfolk Regiment remaining there until 1959. It was also initially built to be used as a prison and this opened in 1887, meaning that the prison at Norwich Castle could be closed and turned into a museum. When the military moved out in 1959, the prison took over those buildings as well.

    Until just a few months ago, this was the home of the Cafe Britannia, where prisoners were able to get customer service work experience. I’m not sure what happened, but the entire project collapsed, with the cafe being left empty (before Covid-19).

    The former entrance to the barracks. At this point, the road splits in two directions, one to the left and the other to the right, but both are apparently still named Britannia Road.

    The road to the left heads back down to Gurney Road, although is also where the road to the right goes to as well so it’d be hard for anyone to get too lost here. Although I can think of a couple of people I know who probably would.

    There’s quite a rural feel to this part of the road.

    As an aside, it’s worth walking down Britannia Road to get this view over the city.

    The prison from the viewpoint.

  • London – British Museum (East of England Bank)

    London – British Museum (East of England Bank)

    I usually visit the British Museum three or four times a year, something which is a little difficult to do with the current virus situation, primarily because it’s shut. However, they’ve placed hundreds of thousands of images on their web-site, so this will have to do me for the moment. The images can be used non-commercially, as long as the British Museum is credited. So, this is their credit.

    The technical description for this is an “original envelope for banknote printing plate” which has the Norwich coat of arms on it. Banks in the nineteenth century seemed to be taken over as fast as sausage rolls sell in Greggs, so the whole ownership thing gets complex. I like what this represents, a period of banking revolution in the mid-nineteenth century, when banks were truly local. Although they also kept going bust which wasn’t ideal.

    The East of England Bank had already taken over numerous banks, such as the Suffolk Banking Company and the Stable Bank, which I think is a very sensible name for a financial institution. The London & Westminster Bank mentioned on the note was founded in 1834 and later merged with the National Provincial and then that merged with the Westminster Bank, to become Natwest.

    Barclays Bank (and I have no idea what involvement they have with all of this and why they hold some of the archives) note that:

    “The East of England Bank was established in 1836 with paid up capital of £100,000 and note circulation of £25,000. The bank expanded rapidly, opening 33 branches across Norfolk and Suffolk, but got into difficulty and suspended payment on 20 July 1864. The six directors were a farmer, a retired draper, a clergyman, a surgeon, a retired commercial traveller and a Yarmouth wharfinger. The solicitor’s report said, ‘The Books and Accounts of the Bank are admirably kept and if the management had been as good as the book keeping the . . . state of affairs . . . would not have arrived.’ The company was reconstructed as the Provincial Banking Corporation, which bought the premises, other assets and accounts of the East of England for £11,625 9s. 6d.”

    The note, or envelope or whatever it’s called, was issued between 1836 and 1864 and like nearly everything seems to be that I’ve seen, it’s not on display. It was on loan from the Chartered Institute of Bankers between 1987 and 2009, when the British Museum acquired it for themselves.

  • London – British Museum (Norwich Triumphal Arch etching by Paul Fourdrinier)

    London – British Museum (Norwich Triumphal Arch etching by Paul Fourdrinier)

    I usually visit the British Museum three or four times a year, something which is a little difficult to do with the current virus situation, primarily because it’s shut. However, they’ve placed hundreds of thousands of images on their web-site, so this will have to do me for the moment. The images can be used non-commercially, as long as the British Museum is credited. So, this is their credit.

    When I was in Bucharest a few weeks ago I was quite impressed by the number of triumphal arches they had, which marked victory in some conflict or other. I wondered briefly, as to be honest I wonder about a lot of bloody rubbish, why no enterprising man or woman had bunged something up in Norwich. They were often only temporary structures, so a bit of wood, bit of decoration and there’s a lovely arch.

    I digress. Again. So, this plate above is etched by Paul Fourdrinier, an engraver and etcher who lived between 1698 and 1758, who kept himself busy by doing the illustrations for books, as well as being a portrait painter. The British Museum noted that this scene is in Norwich and being naturally sceptical, I did wonder whether that was right. But, of course, the curators were right and I found a similar etching which does have Norwich written on it.

    The arch was erected in honour of the Duke of Cumberland in 1746 and it had the phrase “to the deliverer of his country”. My rickety knowledge of history means this is the Battle of Culloden, where the Duke of Cumberland put down the Jacobite Rising. So, the next question is where on earth in Norwich was this arch put up? After reading through old newspapers, it seems there were triumphal arches placed in the city centre on a regular basis between around 1700 to 1850, usually at the marketplace. And then, I noted on Wikipedia, there’s a reference to the exact spot being by the Guildhall. I still can’t pin down exactly where the buildings in the above etching are, but I can now sleep at night with my new knowledge of triumphal arches in Norwich. I really need to get out more.

    And you can’t see the etching at the British Museum, it’s not on display.

  • Streets of Norwich – St. John Maddermarket

    Streets of Norwich – St. John Maddermarket

    Part of my Streets of Norwich project….

    For some reason that I’ve never fathomed out, I’ve always liked this street, which is dominated by St. John the Baptist, Maddermarket Church and its sprawling churchyard. The name of the street is derived from the time that madder, which is a root that produced a red dye, was sold from the north end of the churchyard in the thirteenth century. From then on, the name has stuck and this street connects St. Andrew’s Street with Pottergate. More on the church in another post though…..

    The building on the left is number 21-23, two buildings constructed in the seventeenth century which have been two separate shops for some time, with the left-hand side property having once been a pub.

    I’ve been intrigued by this graveyard on the right-hand side, as it’s raised up and I know that in York and in other cities this was simply because they kept trying to put burials in the space they had, and the ground level rose. However, the church itself is also higher, because it was fitted into a limited amount of land. But, having written that, there was an archaeological dig which found bodies from the seventeenth century underneath now what is the above road, so the graveyard was once lower.

    I hadn’t noticed this until today, it’s a water pump from the nineteenth century which is made out of iron and is now missing its handle.

    A view down the street towards St. Andrew’s Street.

    Another thing that I haven’t noticed before, this notes where the Golden Lion public house was located between 1783 and 1965. It was also the location of Golden Lion yard, which was also swept away when the pub was demolished.

    This is where the pub was. Replaced by yet another bland and generic building. Although to be fair, there’s a photo of the pub here and it didn’t look that exciting either. But I prefer the look of the pub.

  • Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day Forty-Six

    Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day Forty-Six

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

    To Bubble

    This is defined as “to cheat”, terminology which seems relatively common in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, then lost in the nineteenth century. Bubble is a made up word, so it doesn’t have any Greek or Roman origins, with the dictionaries saying that it’s a word named after the sound of a bubble bursting. Which, I guess, is where the cheating thing comes from, their trust was burst just as a bubble would be.