Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: UK

  • Norwich – Ribs of Beef

    Norwich – Ribs of Beef

    In my quest to visit all the pubs in the Good Beer Guide, I’ve managed to mention very few of the Norwich award winners, so I’ll try and resolve that minor problem in 2020….

    The Ribs of Beef has a marvellous riverside location and parts of the building date back to the fourteenth century, although it was badly damaged during a fire in the city in 1507. In 2017, a fragment of the original medieval wall was discovered during renovations, a section which has been left uncovered.

    The building was originally used primarily as a residential property and it was in use as a pub by 1743 when it was first known as the Ribs of Beef. The frontage was knocked about a bit in 1898 to allow for road widening for the city trams and the now smaller building was re-opened as a pub in 1904. It was decided in 1928 by the landlord, Alfred James Kendrick, to rename the pub as the Fye Bridge Tavern. It closed entirely in 1959, so was nearly permanently lost as a licensed premises, but it was re-opened in August 1985.

    Anyway, back to the present. When we entered there was a pub quiz taking place, which I must admit isn’t something that I particularly engage with. However, it’s clear that many people do as the pub was busy and there was a relaxed and informal atmosphere to the premises.

    My drink was half a pint of the Railway Porter from Five Points Brewing, a brewery based in Hackney, London. The beer has been designed to be true to the original style of London porter and there was a richness of taste to the drink, with chocolate and coffee flavours evident. The choice of beers in the pub was also extensive, although the busy nature of the pub made it a little difficult to see the range of beers on the bar or on the boards. But, the range of beers was well curated and there are also plenty of other alcoholic drinks to choose from.

    The pub seems to be something of a success recently (and indeed for many years) and so its entry into the Good Beer Guide seems a worthy one. It’s not really a pub for me as it’s too sports orientated and I like peaceful and calm, but it’s always excellent to see a pub doing well. Very lovely.

  • Little Witchingham – St. Faith’s Church

    Little Witchingham – St. Faith’s Church

    I don’t know why I haven’t been to this beautiful church before, especially given that it’s not overly far from Norwich. Anyway, it was part of the walk before the 2020 Norfolk Ramblers AGM, and a quite marvellous choice of location by the walk leader.

    Most of what is currently here is from the fourteenth century, although there is some evidence of the previous twelfth century church. Of the main structure, only the tower is later and is from the fifteenth century, although it is perhaps the interior that makes this church exceptional.

    The wall paintings are the highlight of this church, dating primarily from the fourteenth century, with one large section telling the story of St. George and the Dragon. Only the reddish elements of the artworks now remain, a reminder of just how bright churches once were before the Reformation changed that situation somewhat. One wall has been prepared for painting, but there are no artworks, it’s thought because the Black Death put paid to that little project. There is though, on the right hand side of the chancel window, some faded text which is thought to have been added after the Reformation, so there was not a total absence of artwork.

    The building is now looked after by the Churches Conservation Trust, who have done a marvellous job of ensuring the interior is protected and they’ve also prepared a comprehensive history of the church. The church is disused and it has been since the 1920s, although some bright spark thought about demolishing it in the 1940s and rebuilding it in Bawdeswell.

    It is primarily through the efforts of Eve Baker, a local historian, who found the church in a perilous state in 1967 and noticed that the damp walls were showing evidence of wall paintings underneath. There were initial studies in the 1970s which uncovered many of the wall paintings, with further evidence being found in the 1980s. Norfolk Record Office hold a collection of photos taken in 1970s of the state of the wall paintings, an interesting snapshot in the history of the church.

    Through the efforts of many, not least Eve, the church was restored and its interior protected. Well, sort of protected, someone pinched a load of their floor tiles in 2008, but welcome to the modern world…. It’s now open from 10.00 until 16.00 every day of the week and hopefully no-one else will pinch anything.

    The chancel of the church. There’s little furniture in the church, which adds somewhat to the whole interior given how impressive the wall paintings are. The Renaissance pulpit from the church survives, but it’s now at St. Faith’s Church in Lenwade.

    The blocked doorway in the north wall, with decorations around it.

    The other side of that blocked doorway.

    Visible here is how the level of the wall was raised when the church roof was reconstructed.

    The section just past the window used to be inside the church, but the wall was rebuilt a little further forwards in the late eighteenth century.

    All told, this is a quite marvellous church and it’s partly a miracle that it’s still here. It made it through the Victorian period relatively unchanged, a fate not shared by all churches, but the congregation size wasn’t there to make it sustainable. Without the intervention of a handful of people, not least Eve Baker, this church could well have just fallen down and been lost.

  • Norwich – Turtle Bay

    Norwich – Turtle Bay

    I used to really like Turtle Bay, but the quality seemed to slide a bit in 2019, but I’m hopeful that things are improving once again. The reviews of the Norwich outlet are still holding up, there are a few negatives, but nothing which suggests any serious problems.

    Anyway, I hadn’t planned on going back in the near future, but just before Christmas, Turtle Bay sent a lot of people with the app £10 off their meal or drinks. When I was away in Poland, there was an update from the app suggesting that I use it for a £10 lunch deal, with no minimum purchase. So, since the offer was running until the middle of February, I thought that I should make the most of it.

    The welcome was efficient and polite, with the staff member confirming that there was no minimum purchase with my voucher, I thought that it was best to double check. I went for the drink of the home-made fizzy mango, served in a bottle with an elastic band around it. It was a generous portion, consisting of mango, lemon juice and grapefruit crush. I got quite a taste of thick mango essence towards the bottom, since neither I nor the restaurant had stirred the drink particularly well. However, it tasted fine.

    The lunch menu gives a choice of a burger or roti, a side and a soft drink for £10. The pulled chicken roti was fine, the chicken was tender, the avocado was soft and there were some pleasant flavours. The chips also had a little spice to them, but even as part of the lunch deal, the pricing is still a little punchy for the amount of food. If ordered in the evening, this would have cost nearer £15 for the three component parts, and I’m not sure that’s particularly good value for money.

    One element that moderately surprises me is that they’re not pushing their core dishes at lunch-time, the offer is limited to burgers and rotis. I’d rather they’d offered something such as jerk chicken, or one of the curries, even at a lower price, to get a little taste of the Caribbean. I thought that I was more getting the taste of Dudley, nothing wrong with it, but there was no elements of surprise with the tastes and textures. I didn’t work out what was in that little dish, but I did liven up the proceedings by adding sauce to everything.

    The service was effortlessly polite throughout, the restaurant was clean (other than the sauce bottles hadn’t been cleaned) and the environment was relaxed and comfortable. I can’t much complain about anything as the restaurant had given me the entire meal for free as part of their app deal, but I still can’t help missing Turtle Bay’s meals of old which were packed with tastes and flavours.

  • Heathrow T5 – British Airways B Gates Lounge

    I’ve written about this lounge before in more detail here, but there have been a few new food developments….

    I haven’t seen this before, and although I’m not sure garlic is an ideal ingredient before customers board an aircraft, I very much like black pepper chicken.

    It was absolutely delicious, the chicken was tender and there was a peppery taste to the sauce.

    I’ve seen this before, but only recently, which is the carrot cake. Very nice…. Moist and flavourful….

    But, my favourite addition to the lounge food are the pork pies with piccalilli. I don’t like pork pies with lots of jelly, so these meet my requirements in terms of their overall taste and their lack of jelly.

  • Flights – Heathrow T5 to Warsaw (British Airways)

    Flights – Heathrow T5 to Warsaw (British Airways)

    This was the clearest photo that I could get of today’s BA850 service from London Heathrow T5 to Warsaw Chopin Airport in Poland. The aircraft was G-EUPH, an Airbus A319, which British Airways have owned since April 2000 when it was new. These A319 aircraft are gradually being withdrawn from service, but they’ve served the airline well.

    As I was at B Gates lounge I asked the staff member if she could see where the flight was departing from before it was announced, to save me walking back if the departure was at B Gates. It was at Gate A23 in the main terminal and I was the first to arrive there, primarily since the gate number hadn’t otherwise been announced.

    And here’s the packed waiting area, although it soon got much busier. The staff were pro-active in trying to get customers with two bags to put one of them in the hold, as the flight was nearly full. Some people refused and so a different staff member, who was more forthright to say the least, went round and politely told customers that it wasn’t really an option. The amount of bags that customers are taking on board is becoming ridiculous, something will need to be done at some stage about them.

    The boarding process was otherwise orderly and well managed, with groups called forwards carefully and customers were despatched back to the seating area if they tried to jump the queue. I like organisation.

    I had an exit row aisle seat and there was no-one next to me, so it was a comfortable flight in terms of the space available.

    We were delayed on take-off, partly as the inbound flight had been a few minutes late, but primarily as the crew had problems trying to fit all the bags on. Some customers, mostly those who were trying to bring on a bag the size of a small hippo couldn’t find anywhere to store them. At one stage there were eight customers standing in the aisle of the aircraft with bags not fitting in anywhere, but the crew did their usual jenga tactics of moving and restacking bags, with another going into storage elsewhere.

    The flight eventually arrived into Warsaw twenty minutes late, so no real problem, with the crew members being conscientious with their announcements and updates. There was a buy on board service which went up and down the cabin, but I saw only a few customers buy anything from it. The fare was £55 return plus 2,500 Avios, although I get 1,350 Avios back with this flight.

  • Heathrow – Ibis Heathrow

    Heathrow – Ibis Heathrow

    I’ve stayed at this Ibis hotel near the airport a few times and written about it before. It’s a short free bus journey away if using TFL buses and there’s car parking available for those who insist on driving everywhere.

    This is one of the Accor hotels which persists in this habit of welcoming customers from the customer side of the reception desk. I don’t much like the practice, they’re often leaving screens open with names of other guests, and I’m pleased more Accor hotels are ditching this policy.

    The check-in process was relatively quick, but they missed my free drink voucher, although it was provided quickly enough when I very politely hinted about it.

    I’ve only once been given a welcome amenity by this hotel, and Accor themselves have told me to mark this hotel down for failing to do so every time. That seems a little harsh, but consistency is probably in the hotel’s own interests. The room was clean and well presented though, with a most lovely view of the car park. Everything was well stocked and worked properly, with the wi-fi being fine, albeit with a couple of drop-outs. They still have the anti-theft devices on their towels that I mentioned last time.

    The room this time didn’t have an information card about breakfast times, contact details and the like, but it now has a menu instead.

    The hotel is asking guests to pay £1 per bag they want stored during the day, which is donated to charity. I’ve never stored bags here, but I’m not convinced that charging for a service that guests would expect for free is an ideal solution here. I thought Accor hotels were meant to organise separate events to raise money for the Teenage Cancer Trust rather than this, but it is a marvellous charity to raise money for.

    This was provided after I queried where it was….

    The bar area, with two members of staff, one of whom was competent and welcoming, the other was, well, not. Bar work really isn’t an ideal role for those with misanthropic tendencies.

    The London Pride was off, just for a short while, so I went for the Goose Session IPA as I haven’t had it before. Slightly generic, but it’s an interesting additional option for the hotel to offer as nearly every customer I noticed order beer went for the Stella option….

    And served in a branded glass and at the appropriate temperature.

    The breakfast buffet arrangements, with the food placed on two large tables in the centre of the restaurant area. There were plenty of seating available and the manager was making continual efforts to keep everything clean and tidy. There didn’t seem many customers going for the breakfast option, but it starts early and runs late to cater for those with strange flight times, so perhaps it’s rarely overly busy.

    The croissants were particularly nice, although the muffins were the usual bland Ibis affair which the company must provide. The sausages were delicious and flavoursome, with the bacon either served slightly firm (my favourite) or with raw fat on it (my least favourite) which required some dexterity to get the piece I wanted. The ham lacked some colour and seemed quite grey, as if it had been out for a little while, but everything seemed organised and well presented.

    I had a look at TripAdvisor to amuse myself and the hotel was left this ridiculous review.

    “When I arrived at just gone 11am, which I have done on MANY occasions, I was expecting maybe a short wait to get into my room as 11 is a little early, what I wasn’t expecting was to be told the hotel was fully booked the night before & I would have to wait until TWO pm to check in UNLESS I paid an extra £20.00 & then low & behold a room would miraculously appear clean & ready for me.”

    I’m often one of those people who checks in early, but 11:00 is very early for a check-in…. £20 for early check-in seems reasonable to me, although it’s free for most under the loyalty scheme anyway.

    “You either have NO rooms available full stop because the hotel is booked OR you put your prices up on your website & on booking.com to reflect how much you are ACTUALLY going to charge people to get into their room at a reasonable time.”

    14:00 seems reasonable to me…. They definitely had a room, ready and waiting for those who wanted to pay…. This is the problems that hotels face, they try and help customers by giving them something they’re not entitled to, such as an early check-in, only for the customer to throw it back at them later on with a 1 star review when they don’t get the same favour.

    Overall, I can’t much complain (although I seem to end up doing so on here….) as the room, including breakfast, came to just over £30. For the convenience of Heathrow, this was ideal, plus I’ll get some points back on the new Accor Limitless loyalty scheme.

  • Heathrow – Free Travel Zone

    Heathrow – Free Travel Zone

    I’ve been aware of the free travel zone at Heathrow for some time and it’s a useful way of getting to the airport from Bath Road without having to pay for the Hoppa Bus. I stay relatively frequently at the Ibis Heathrow which is marginally outside of the zone, but it’s only a three-minute walk to the next bus stop that’s within it.

    For some reason (probably because I don’t think as much as I should….) I’ve always got the buses to the central bus terminal and then got the underground or Hex to T5 (both free for changing between terminals) from there. But, I realised today that there’s the 423 bus which goes straight to the delights of T5, so there was no need for me to go to the central bus terminal.

    It wasn’t the busiest bus that I’ve ever seen, although it picked up a few more passengers en route to T5.

    Image result for hal free travel zone

    And here’s the free travel zone in its entirety…. For anyone staying on the Bath Road, unless they’re at a strange place along it, getting the TFL bus is a handy saving on the otherwise quite expensive charges of the Hoppa bus.

  • Stoke Newington – Rectory Road Railway Station

    Stoke Newington – Rectory Road Railway Station

    This railway station doesn’t look particularly exciting, perhaps primarily as it’s a modern building. The station was originally constructed by Great Eastern Railway in 1872 as part of a new branch line which went down to London Liverpool Street. It took its name from, well, the street called Rectory Road, which is now known as the A10.

    In 1878, the owners of Manor Tavern, which was on the corner of Church Road and Rectory Road, advertised their property by writing “no neighbourhood in London is developing more rapidly than this. Since the opening of the station, building has been pushed on most extensively, and it is quite certain that within but a short time this house will be doing an immense trade. With these prospects it has also the solid present advantage of a large and lucrative business, everything being sold at the fullest prices”. The rent was £100 per year, which is only around £8,000 per year today, so quite a bargain in modern terms. The pub is still standing, but it’s now flats as it closed as a public house in the early part of this century.

    The footbridge over the top of the line, which has the road behind it, isn’t likely to win many awards for architecture. All of this was built in 1975, replacing the previous more basic structure with a more solid brick construction.

    Looking down the track, away from London.

    This line was operated by Greater Anglia, but it’s now run by TFL.

  • London – Fourex Machine

    London – Fourex Machine

    I’ve never seen one of these machines, but it appears that the company operates around 75 of them, primarily in London, but also at some transport hubs. They’re a way for customers to place in foreign coins and notes and get back out UK pounds, or another currency. They even accept pre-Euro currency, so an opportunity to get rid of some old French francs.

    The rates aren’t though the best. 1,000 Polish zloty are currently worth just over £200 (which is good, as they were lower a few weeks ago and I’m off there next), but this machine would pay £175 (or just £120 if coins were paid in). Looking at companies who provide buy-back, they give back from £195 at best (currency on-line group to £181 at worst (RBS). However, for convenience, the rates aren’t too bad in the scale of things and the banks don’t generally accept coins at all.

    It’s a marvellous idea though and I might look at my little currency reserves, which are very small, as there doesn’t seem to be a minimum transaction size. A very good idea and the transparency of having the rates on their web-site is also useful.

  • Greater Anglia : Norwich to London Liverpool Street

    Greater Anglia : Norwich to London Liverpool Street

    Something new that I’ve learned today, this is DVT 82121, with the DVT meaning Driving Van Trailer, a push-pull service which means that the driver can operate the train from the other end of it. Very useful.

    It wasn’t very busy.

    All was going very well until we reached London, when the train suddenly stopped and the driver made an announcement that he didn’t know why. He repeated that announcement a couple of times, which filled me with confidence, before announcing a few minutes later that there was a signals failure near Stratford. This became evident when we saw a freight train stuck in the middle platform of a station, whilst our train used an unusual platform when it eventually got into Stratford. But at least it meant that I will be able to make a delay repay claim, albeit for the lowest possible sum as the delay was relatively minor.

    The other end of the train after we arrived into London Liverpool Street. The staff were friendly on the journey, with the guard being thorough with ticket checking (which I like since rules should be followed…..) and the announcements were appropriate and informative. The ticket cost the bargain sum of just £10, so again, good value for money. And, as a bonus, the power sockets and wi-fi worked perfectly throughout, with plenty of table seats available for those who wanted them.