Norwich – Cricketers’ Rest [Closed] (Two Julians)
This pub closed in late 2010 and I never visited it, but I’ve walked by it many times and watched it fall further and further into disrepair over the last decade. The pub opened in the 1870s and was something of a survivor (well, until it shut) as a Victorian corner pub and it was a Bullards, then Watney Mann, then Norwich Brewery, then Brent Walker, then Pubmaster venue and then Park Taverns operated. It was purchased by Norfolk based Tager Inns in 2002 who at that time had 11 pubs in the county and they were looking to buy a further nine. The Morning Advertiser reported at the time that the company had been founded by Neil Gear in 1999 when he bought his first two pubs in Great Yarmouth, the Mitre in George Street and the Norfolk Tavern in Crown Road. There’s little information on-line about Tager Inns, but soon after they were purchased by London Inn Group, who got themselves into trouble soon afterwards and went bust in some spectacular fashion with the administrators struggling to even work out what pubs they owned. This pub was caught up in that and was sold to free trade, but it didn’t last long and we are now where we are.
In terms of the name, this is the only pub that has been called the Cricketers’ Rest in Norwich, which makes finding newspaper articles about it much easier than somewhere like the King’s Head where there are tens of the things. Above is the advert from Bullards in 1905, mentioning that there was good stabling, a yard and a large club room.
And here it is in 1884, with the stabling element visible in the rear yard and that space remains there today behind some locked wooden gates.
In 1907, the Norfolk Chronicle reported:
“A DANGER TO THE COMMUNITY
Thomas Richard Alden (19), groom, pleaded guilty to feloniously breaking and entering the Cricketers’ Rest, Hall-road, Lakenham, belonging to Messrs. Bullard and Sons, Ltd., and stealing therein from a slot meter 12s. 11d., the moneys of the British Gas Light Co., Ltd., and also 4s. 3d., and two bottles of beer, belonging to Messrs. Bullard.”
He was sentenced to nine months in prison for that, with hard labour. It was a busy time for the pub, as three years later, the same newspaper reported:
“Alfred Stowers, landlord of the Cricketers’ Rest public-house, Queen’s-road, was summoned for permitting drunkenness on his licensed premises on January 29th. Mr. G. A. Perkes appeared for the defence.–Police-sergt. Christie said that in the Cricketers’ Rest was a man who had just previously been ordered out of another public-house for being drunk, and later he was arrested for being drunk and disorderly. Defendant made no attempt to get the man out of the house until witness called his attention to his condition, and then he said the man had only been in the house a minute, and had had no drink there.–Corroborative evidence was given by Police-constable Seager, and for the defence it was submitted that, although the man was drunk, defendant did not know of it. The landlord was very busy at the time, and the man was in the house less than five minutes.–The Bench thought the case one for investigation, but considering that defendant had done his best to prevent drunkenness on the premises it would be dismissed.”
This is Google Streetview from 2008. I can’t imagine that the Cricketers is at all viable now, the insides of the venue are unlikely to resemble a pub still and the amount of repairs would be costly. Which makes this a sad loss of a Norwich pub, although fortunately there are still several in the nearby area.
