Category: Attleborough

Julian and I went on a little meander at the weekend to the London Tavern and the Griffin Hotel as part of our attempt to visit every pub in Norfolk and Suffolk. There aren’t many pubs left in the town centre of Attleborough, but I was merrily reading the story of the Bear pub which was located on Queens Road. The odd story of this pub’s demise was written about in the Diss Express on Friday 16 April 1999, although they were hopeful of finding a resolution at the time, when the owner Spring Inns announced they wanted to sell the building. Spring Inns had purchased the property from Pubmaster and they were one of the pub companies that was swept up by the larger pubcos, leaving a trail of destruction in their path, but I digress.

But the relevant part here is that the new landlady, Susan Dickerson, had been the landlady of her pub for just two days before Spring Inns announced their decision. That feels highly sub-optimal. She had been promised a two year lease and had left her job working on the checkout of one of the town’s supermarkets. She had thrown herself into her new pub, operating it on a community basis with three pool teams, a darts team and a bowling team. Dickerson was hopeful of a positive outcome as she clearly loved her pub, but it shut anyway and was turned into housing. It was a sad end to a pub that had been trading since the late eighteenth century and it looks like a traditional old building that would have been a credit to the town.

There are some other stories from the pub over the centuries, including from 1853 when a James Back and a William Barnes were drinking in the venue. They then thought it would be a marvellous idea to race two friends, John Anderson and a lad called Gooch, on their horse and cart and Back and Barnes were riding in a waggon without reins. This ended in disaster when there was a crash with Anderson dying and Gooch being seriously injured. The two drunken men were fined £1 each, but the Bear weren’t considered culpable in the whole arrangement. Numerous coroner courts and public auctions were also held at the Bear, a reminder of when pubs were very much part of their local community and their functioning. They still are to a large degree, but unfortunately there are far fewer of them.

Anyway, I’d like to know more about this pub and if anyone does have any recollections or photos, let me know at jw@julianwhite.uk.

This post is also available at www.norfolksuffolk.org.uk where our back catalogue of posts about pubs in Norfolk and Suffolk can be found  🙂

We visited Attleborough at 21:00 on a Saturday night and the two town centre pub options listed on CAMRA’s Whatspub were the London Tavern and this former coaching inn, the Griffin Hotel. I have to some degree wax lyrical about the Griffin Hotel as it first opened in the 1560s when Queen Elizabeth I was on the throne. I’m enthralled what the atmosphere of coaching inns would have been like. Travel was more dangerous and challenging during those times, so travellers reaching their accommodation for the evening would have had an element of relief. They would have been keen to have a meal, several drinks and accommodation provided, all the elements of a positive jamboree of entertainment.

The venue notes that this passageway was once paved with wooden cobbles to muffle the sound of horses arriving and departing, to prevent disturbing the sleep of the weary travellers already in their beds.

This wing overlooking the church was added in the eighteenth century.

The venue’s dining and breakfast room. It might not look the most modern, but it’s in keeping with the building and its cosy feel.

The menu.

The special’s board.

There was just one real ale, the Battle of Britain from Wolf Brewery. It wasn’t quite the choice of four or five real ales that we had seen listed on Whatpub, but it was a well kept copper coloured ale.

The bar itself is in keeping with the general decor which is full of character and I have a sense of wonder of just how many people have walked through here over the centuries. The pub was quiet when we visited, just a couple of other customers which couldn’t have been in much more contrast to the London Tavern. Julian noted that he could hear the music from the louder pub whilst in this pub, it’s nice of them to share their entertainment like that.

The smaller snug room to the left of the main entrance.

A beer pump. There were numerous framed photos on the walls, somewhat eclectic but adding atmosphere to proceedings none the less.

I very much liked this venue, the heritage is undeniable and it had a calm and cosy feel to it. This must be one hell of a challenge to operate at the moment given the sheer size of the building and the energy demands that it must have amongst all of their other costs. Attleborough no longer needs the level of accommodation that it once did when it was a coaching town, but there were still numerous places to stay and so that means room rates aren’t likely to go that high.

Their on-line reviews on Google aren’t perhaps helping them much as they picked up several negatives a few years ago, which might put current potential diners and guests off. However, their accommodation element seems to have better reviews and I imagine that this is what is sustaining them at the moment. It’s essential to the community that venues such as this continue to thrive, as it would be horrifying for an Elizabethan pub to close after so many centuries. It’s reassuring that such places are still open and it was a delight to have a drink in an environment with so much history.

This post is also available at www.norfolksuffolk.org.uk where our back catalogue of posts about pubs in Norfolk and Suffolk can be found  🙂

The London Tavern has been surprising and delighting the denizens of Attleborough since the 1830s. Norfolk Pubs has some history about how the landlords were playing a bit fast and loose during the World Wars, in 1916 they were failing to close their premises to soldiers and during the Second World War there were repeated breaches of blackout rules.

It would be wrong of me not to mention in passing that there was something of an absence of welcome when we entered, although we were left sufficiently entertained as the member of bar staff decided that she was going to go into detail with other customers about matters that I cannot possibly write about for fear of spoiling this blog’s PG rating. I don’t mind listening to more personal information than I could possibly know what to do with, but it meant that we were just standing waiting to be served for a few minutes which was a little sub-optimal as no-one was being served. But, the venue itself seemed inviting enough and it had attracted quite a number of characters so Julian was entirely in his element. A well run pub really should have an element of theatre about it, I was sensing that Julian was near to writing one of his theatre reviews with the amount of material being provided to us.

The vibe of the venue is perhaps evident from this review and the pub’s response:

“Got covered in dog slime from owners dog then it did a dump beside me which left there”

Got the rather elegant reply of:

“We are very sorry that you witnessed an extremely disturbing and upsetting incident in our garden approximately 9.4 meters from where you sat. We thank you for bringing the incident to our staff and customers attention and the world at large, hopefully in doing so it will help others never experience such an awful totally preventable occurrence.

However we must thank you for how you relaid the incident it was extremely useful for our new 18yr old barmaid having only been in the role for 5 days it gave her – her first opportunity to experience an irate customer and learn from it, sadly you left so abruptly she/we never got the opportunity to apologise to you in person.

It’s also unfortunate it would seem that Steve missed you by only a few moments as he went outside via one door whilst you entered by another so he also missed the opportunity to apologise to you in person. However as he was out there so quickly he was able to apologise to those customers still in the garden for your foul mouthed outburst you directed at them and thankfully turn it into a light hearted moment.

We are grateful for the constructive criticism and we will discuss her bad manners with her and actively look at ways we can prevent this type of incident happening again. We totally appreciate that you will never wish to visit again so will take this opportunity to offer you our sincere apologies.”

I think that’s a fair reply  🙂

They had one real ale, which was the Iceni Queenie from Steam Shed Brewing of Swaffham, a well kept golden ale. At the appropriate temperature and an interesting beer that I haven’t had before, so all was well there. They did brew their own beer, Taylor’s Brewery, on site but this stopped during lockdown and hasn’t yet restarted although there are plans to do so at some stage.

Julian enjoying the atmosphere, which had a considerable climate of activity to keep him absorbed in people watching. I can’t possibly go into too much detail, but Julian even got the attention of Facebook with his commentary on what he saw. What more praise could a pub want?

There wasn’t much pub activity in the centre of Attleborough on the Saturday evening that we visited, it was here and the Griffin which were open for our entertainment. I think it’s fair to say that for those want a lively and noisy atmosphere, go for this one, there’s likely always going to be something happening. The welcome could have been a bit more immediate, but we were in no hurry and the pub was kept clean and tidy. Definitely something of a community hub and the place to party, the number of customers suggests that they’re doing something right so worth popping into for anyone who happens to be passing by.