Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: UK

  • Streets of Norwich – Eastbourne Place

    Streets of Norwich – Eastbourne Place

    Part of my Streets of Norwich project….

    Not much has changed on this little street since the above map was published in 1885. The only change is to the name, as St. Faith’s Lane used to go all the way from Tombland to King Street. It sort of still does, although St. Faith’s Lane as a road name stops at Prince of Wales Road, then becomes Eastbourne Place and then becomes Mountergate.

    This map, from twenty years earlier, seems to suggest that Eastbourne Place was constructed in the early 1860s as there are no buildings marked here. Why they choose the name Eastbourne, I have no idea…..

    And the building would have been possible because of the construction of Prince of Wales Road, which was in the late 1850s (the above map is 1849), which finally opened in 1862.

    The area in front of Eastbourne Place has been messed around by the council on numerous occasions, the once little wooded area barely now exists, although at least the nearly always broken public toilet has been removed.

    The building on the left-hand side, which is now blacked out, was until the 2019 a branch of Domino’s, but it has a long history of being a food outlet, as in the 1860s John Sword opened up a refreshment rooms here which sold tea, coffee and other drinks. He also provided accommodation, which I assume was in the rooms which are now occupied by the nightclub Loft.

    The Presto Bar was also here, which housed a 60-foot long model car track, which still exists as Presto Park, although has been much changed over the decades. I think the Presto Bar occupied the same space as the refreshment rooms opened up by John Sword.

    This area looks better now than it has for some years, the space in front has been opened out and the number of cars reduced, although some more greenery would be nice. And someone needs to open up where Domino’s once was….

  • Streets of Norwich – Bank Street

    Streets of Norwich – Bank Street

    Part of my Streets of Norwich project….

    The above map is from the 1870s, with no substantial changes to Bank Street since then, although the area to the south of it was turned into a hotel.

    On the left is the entrance to what was Wade’s Court, although has also been known, and is now signed as Wade’s Yard. On the right is the back of the Royal Hotel, which takes up the whole block and which was built between 1896 and 1897. When they were demolishing the buildings on the site they discovered archaeological remains from the outer precincts of Norwich Castle. Built with 65 bedrooms for guests, the hotel remained trading until 1977 when a lack of car parking saw its demise. Fortunately, plans in the 1970s to demolish it and replace it with a glass office block were rejected, with the building more recently being used for offices.

    The second building on the left, with the sign hanging up above the door, is the former Bank Tavern. Later on part of the Steward & Patteson brewery, this pub first opened in the early part of the nineteenth century and it remained trading until November 1965.

    Looking back down Bank Street towards Bank Plain.

  • Norwich – TGI Fridays

    Norwich – TGI Fridays

    Back to 2017, and the much missed (well, by me) unlimited appetisers which were offered by TGI Fridays in Norwich.

    That’s the offer, you can order endless appetisers for £9.99 if you want huge amounts of the same thing, or £12.99 to order from any of the dishes listed. The staff member told me that no-one had ever ordered the same appetiser for £9.99 to his knowledge, I suspect it’s just there to lower the headline price so they can say “from £9.99”.

    My visit here was with Liam, and we planned to get through all of the options between us if we could, with a few exceptions obviously such as the salad. The options were a pulled pork sundae, garlic ciabatta bread, taquito bites, BBQ houmous, mozzarella dippers, nachos, potato skins, loaded fries, bruschetta, chicken wings, house salad, onion rings and crispy fries.

    The pulled pork sundae, which consists of mashed potato with BBQ pulled pork, bacon, cheese and jalapenos.

    Chicken wings in a cola sauce (there were a choice of different options for the chicken wings, with the others being BBQ, hot, scorpion hot and boneless).

    Um, I have no idea, but I think it might be the garlic ciabatta bread with cheese.

    Potato skins.

    Onion rings.

    Taquito bites.

    Boneless chicken wings, which were very moreish.

    I’m not that keen on mozzarella dippers, so fortunately Liam went for those.

    Nachos.

    They definitely need to do this again. The service was efficient and engaging, although it’s hard for the waiting staff to be able to offer any upsells, so it’s a different style of service to usual, especially since the soft drinks have free refills. There were no real delays in more food being brought out, noticeable by how much we got through. The highlights for me were the onion rings, boneless chicken wings and the taquito bites, with only the pulled pork sundae being a bit of a mash of tastes and textures that I wasn’t that thrilled about.

    The food at TGI Fridays is usually reasonable, although priced at the higher end of the scale, so this was a useful offer in terms of getting better value for money. Unfortunately, I’m not sure that they’ve repeated this offer since 2018, but perhaps when Covid-19 is over then it might come back.

  • Southend – Last Post

    Southend – Last Post

    I’ve been to relatively few JD Wetherspoon pubs in Essex, but I visited here in 2017. It’s a grand former Post Office building which was constructed in 1896, with the transformation into a pub being sympathetic.

    When I visited the pub in the evening there was a fight taking place and customers being dragged out by staff. Just what you want on a weekday in the early evening, but I like a bit of excitement to be fair. The photo above was taken during breakfast, when things were just a little more sedate and peaceful.

    The half chicken and chips, something which has now been withdrawn from the menu, but which tasted fine. I can’t remember the real ale selection, but JD Wetherspoons rarely let me down in that regard.

    And the breakfast, with the egg being overcooked, but all else was well.

    Disappointingly, the pub seems to have picked up no comments on TripAdvisor that seem ridiculous, so nothing worth quoting from there. Well, other than the complaint:

    “Ordered a bottle of Pinot Rose. Very rude bar staff with long brown hair argued with me for about then mins telling me there is no such thing as Pinot Rose and Pinot was White. Please educate your staff as Pinot is a brand n not a damn colour. Never felt so angry, the way she spoke to me was disgusting, serious attitude problem. Embarrassing. Then I got given some nasty Hardy’s Rose bottle.”

    The staff member was likely right, I’ve got a copy of the 2017 menu and they did only sell Pinot as a white wine at the pub, so she would have struggled to give him another other type of Pinot.

    This can’t be an easy operation to run, a cheap pub in a seaside destination which gets stag and hen groups amongst others, I imagine their door staff are frequently challenged. There’s always a risk that these beautiful Victorian buildings are lost, so all credit to JD Wetherspoons for ensuring that they have been kept and remain in use.

  • Norwich – West Cornwall Pasty (Railway Station)

    Norwich – West Cornwall Pasty (Railway Station)

    There are two West Cornwall Pasty outlets in Norwich, one in the Haymarket and the other at the railway station.

    These photos are from their Christmas selection, since the outlet is currently shut due to this bloody virus. At this precise moment in time I could well do with a lovely pasty from here though…. Incidentally, I think their best two options are the chicken & chorizo pasty and the Thai green vegetable curry, with the potato wedges being rather less exciting.

    It’ll be open again soon enough no doubt…..

  • Streets of Norwich – White Lion Street

    Streets of Norwich – White Lion Street

    Part of my Streets of Norwich project….

    White Lion Street runs from Gentlemans’ Walk and bends into Orford Hill and Red Lion Street, all very much unchanged over the last 150 years. The street takes its name from the former White Lion pub, but was originally called Sadelere Rowe in the thirteenth century due to the saddle-making industry here, and later Lorimers Rowe due to the harness strap makers that were located along the street.

    Although it’s relatively short, there used to be a few pubs down this street, with the Adelphi (13 White Lion Street), the Fruiterers Arms (2-4 White Lion Street) and the White Lion / Haymarket Stores (10 White Lion Street).

    The end of the street, which is all now pedestrianised, which joins Gentlemans’ Walk.

    Looking along the road to the Castle Quarter shopping centre. WH Smiths is on the left, this is the former Fruiterers Arms and is a real loss to the city centre as this would be a rather lovely setting for a pub. The building dates to the seventeenth century and was a pub from the mid-nineteenth century until 1989.

    Looking back towards to the market place area. The building to the left of Ladbrokes was Costa, but they closed in early 2020, so it’s up for rental, with this being the former Haymarket Stores pub. The Haymarket Stores, which was once known as the White Lion, closed in 1974.

    Back in 1912, the businesses along the street were:

    NORTH SIDE

    1 – Pearks, grocers

    1A – Albert Turner, confectioner

    3 – Cozen Randall, hairdresser

    5 – Sam Ellis, fruit merchant

    7 – W. Fletcher, butchers

    9 – Eastern Counties Rubber Company

    11 – London & Norwich Cycle & Rubber Company

    13 – Back’s, wine and spirits merchants

    15 – Back’s, tobacconists

    17 – Henry Moore William, wine and spirits store

    19-21 – Grix William, dining rooms

    SOUTH SIDE

    2-4 – Fruiterers Arms, pub

    6 – Edward Richard Pooley, shoe warehouse

    10 – White Lion, pub

    12 – E. Reeve & Son, grindery

     

    The 1939 register had the following residents living on the street:

    1A – Rosetta Clarke, Douglas Clarke, Frances Webster, Olive Johnson

    6 – Norah Sage

    10 – Edward Thaxton, Emmeline Thaxton, Leonard Thaxton

    13 – William G Gerry, Lily Gerry, William J Gerry

  • London – Tower of London (Poppies)

    London – Tower of London (Poppies)

    This is how the Tower of London’s moat looked when I visited back in August 2014, a sea of poppies to mark the centenary of the start of the First World War.

    The installation was called ‘Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red’ and it remained in place between July and November 2014. Paul Cummins was the artist and Tom Piper designed the concept behind it, which was a magnificent sight in the Tower’s moat.

  • British Airways (Heathrow T5 to Chengdu)

    British Airways (Heathrow T5 to Chengdu)

    The current Coronavirus means that I can’t write about any recent flights on British Airways, so here’s one from six years ago. As a rider at this stage, I wasn’t intending to post these photos when I took them, so they’re not really a very complete set covering the aircraft’s exterior or interior. But, I took a photo of all the food, which is something I rarely neglect my obligations towards….

    Back in 2014, British Airways decided that China was their future and they started a flight to Chengdu as their third destination in the country, as they already flew to Shanghai and Beijing (as well as Hong Kong). There was a documentary at the time where BA management, including their boss then Willie Walsh, said how important China was to them, although their enthusiasm waned and Chengdu was dropped a few years later, in early 2017. This flight was in Club World, or business class, with the aircraft being the Boeing Dreamliner.

    The screen for the IFE.

    The foldable foot rest, which then joined together with the main part of the seat to form a bed. BA have recently announced a new Club Suite, which looks amazing, so the days of having to step over someone else will soon be firmly in the past.

    The menu.

    The watermelon, feta and cucumber salad.

    The Szechuan braised pork with bean curd, an appropriate dish as this was the area of China that we were flying to.

    The summer berry cheesecake with mascarpone cream.

    The breakfast menu.

    Fresh fruit and the mango fruit smoothie. The smoothies on BA are world class and I always tried to get refills if they had enough.

    The continental breakfast option.

    I took these items from the Club Kitchen on board to nibble on between meals.

    I can’t remember much about these meals, primarily because I ate them six years ago, but I was rarely disappointed with BA’s food. I also know that I got my first choice for all meals on this flight, which is always a bonus. Unfortunately, I didn’t note the registration number of the aircraft or much else.

  • Isle of Skye – Fairy Pools

    Isle of Skye – Fairy Pools

    I posted earlier a few photos of the bravery of Scott and Liam in climbing up the various elements of the Fairy Pools, which was a sequence of waterfalls. The rest of us didn’t make that brave climb on rocks through the middle of the waterfalls in case we fell in, we just walked alongside. Richard and Andrew were hoping that Scott fell in, but I didn’t tell anyone that. I think it was Richard and Andrew hoping that, but perhaps it was me.

    Known locally as the Lòin nan Sìthichean, these waterfalls and caves are apparently popular with those who like wild swimming and diving, but I can imagine that the water isn’t exactly tropical in temperature even if it is in appearance. And so, lots more photos, including a photo of a couple having wedding photos. A lovely background, but a bit of a traipse in wedding finery to get to them.

  • Isle of Skye – Old Man of Storr

    Isle of Skye – Old Man of Storr

    And just photos (as opposed to any meaningful information about the route) of our walk a few years ago to the Old Man of Storr. More beautiful scenery, although we spent a lot of the walk wondering exactly which bit of rock we were supposed to be looking at. Some found the walk easier than others and Andrew fell over, but it wasn’t overly busy and the weather was being helpful to us. Most of the photos I took were of the Sanctuary, the collection of rocks (albeit a big collection) in front of the Old Man of Storr.