Tag: Great Yarmouth

This pub isn’t listed in the Good Beer Guide, not least because it doesn’t sell real ale, but I’ve never visited it before and so Julian and I decided to have a little look inside. It takes its name from the now demolished Theatre Royal first built in 1778 which was located on the other side of the road, which was later demolished to become the Regal Theatre and ended up as a Cannon cinema before it was demolished in the 1980s. The replacement buildings are ugly affairs, it’s a shame that the town lost the attractive theatre building. The pub has had its current name since 1824, meaning it’s not far off its 200th birthday, but there appears to have been a licensed premises here before then called Cups.

There was a tragedy in 1845 when the Great Yarmouth suspension bridge collapsed and the owner of the Theatre Tavern, Mr Harmston, organised a performance at the Theatre Royal to raise money for the families of those who had been killed. Over the decades, many of the performers appearing at the theatre came into the pub, it’s got some considerable heritage.

Wrongly branded glasses as Julian went for a Corona (and the bar did offer lime) and myself a John Smith’s, both tasted fine and were reasonably priced. It was evident that this was a proper community pub, it was busy and there was a vibrant but informal atmosphere so I’m confident that visitors to the town would feel welcome.

The bar area and Julian noted that they were talking about the Sheepdog Peanut Butter whiskey, as he’s sceptical of such flavourings. Fortunately Nathan and I had tried this decadent a shot a few weeks before over the road (well, over a couple of roads) in the Troll Cart pub. I recommend it.

There’s a pool table at the back, which I thought was interesting given the limited space available in the venue. The male toilets are out in the courtyard, seemingly a big improvement when they were installed in 1932 but now increasingly rare.

The old lounge bar sign showing the entrance to what is now the pool room. The bar is open to the front of the pub and has a hatch to the rear, not much has changed in terms of the interior structure over the decades and I think that’s rather wonderful. This is a proper pub with character, not burdened with craft beer or real ale, but nonetheless it seems to be catering very well to its audience and I liked it.

This is my second visit to this really very good pub, which I waxed lyrical about before. This time I had visited on a day trip with another Julian where we went to all the Good Beer Guide pubs, plus another pub that looked interesting that I hadn’t been to before.

The welcome was just as effusive this time and I was delighted to see that they have a food menu which I hadn’t realised before.

And I like a pie! They didn’t have a couple of choices available, but they’re home made and the steak and kidney pie was excellent, plenty of steak without any of the fatty bits so that’s a win. Much better than the processed stuff that some pubs sell.

The former smoke room entrance that I hadn’t noticed on my previous visit. I didn’t mention last time that the pub takes it name from the former Blackfriars church which existed in this area. There are bits of that building, which burnt in 1525 and was dissolved in 1534, still visible in the South Star (now closed) and Feathers Inn pubs.

Many of these bottles are for sale, I think I thought that they were decorative last time. This is why I need to revisit pubs to find out things I hadn’t initially realised…… I’m not always the most observant.

The Stout Robin from Barsham Brewery was very agreeable, well kept and had a roasted flavour which suitably complemented my pie.

I won’t repeat what I wrote in my previous post about this pub, the same applied on this visit and I think it’s a welcoming and inviting place with a landlord who understands pubs. But once again, I will say that anyone visiting Great Yarmouth who likes pubs with a comfortable atmosphere would be well advised to take a slight detour to get here. All very lovely.