Tag: Two Julians

The sixth pub in our perambulation around Norwich was the JD Wetherspoon operated Glass House. I didn’t really need to take more photos of here as I likely have several hundred from over the years. The pub isn’t listed in the Good Beer Guide, but I suspect it wasn’t far away given how many pubs from this chain that are listed. I will note that I like this pub, I’ve been coming here for over two decades and it’s generally always been excellent with very few exceptions that I can think of.

The pub opened in 2001 and I’ll borrow their history of the venue:

“Numbers 11–13 Wensum Street were previously in use as small shops and The Glass House Restaurant, the latter recalling the glass company which had been on this site for several decades. The Glass House owes its name to both the glass company which had been on this site for several decades and Norwich’s long history with glass. The Norwich School of glass makers was a mediaeval Norwich-based community of stained glass markers, mostly active between the mid-14th century and the English Reformation, when much of the glass was destroyed as part of the general injunction against stained glass, shrines, roods, statues and bells. The school’s generally light and uncomplicated style has stylised methods of depicting floors and countryside, including motifs resembling ears of barley, seaweed, chequers or pebbles. In common with other church craftsmen, the glass painters used a characteristic border design which resembled a holly leaf wrapped around a rod, as seen at the top of the pub fronts ionic pillars.”

Julian remembers the restaurant and the shops that were based here, but that’s before my time. Credit, once again, to JD Wetherspoon for making an effort to display information about the history of the building and the area. Thank goodness for George Plunkett in general and his archive has a wonderful photo of the building from 1938.

The real ale options, including a couple from the chain’s real ale festival that is taking place at the moment. The pricing is towards the lower end of the scale for drinks, rivalled only really by Craft Union pubs in terms of national brands. The beer selection is broadly excellent, there are cask ales, craft cans and a couple of interesting keg options.

My quick snack of three chicken based items for £7.49, which seemed a marvellous idea as we hadn’t yet eaten on our walking expedition. The food was served promptly, it was reasonably priced and it met my expectations in terms of the taste, temperature and presentation. The food prices have been sneaking up for some time and this pub is one of the more expensive in the chain. Julian marched through his scampi and curry sauce with some satisfaction.

The beer is the Killanny Red Ale from Brehon Brewhouse Brewery which was well-kept and had some interesting toffee and caramel flavours going on. I ordered the drink at the bar and I didn’t have to wait for long to be served and they were dealing with customers in turn. The layout of the pub is odd because of its history, there are three segments to the bar and I think the staff prefer serving from the middle but I like ordering at the large section as that’s where their real ales are. There are some historic elements to the venue, including the ability to peer through a little window in the main room upstairs down towards the area where we were sitting, it all adds to the quirkiness of the pub.

I have always been impressed (as I don’t get out much) that big data can produce some very similar results and nearly every JD Wetherspoon ends up with a rating of between 3.8 and 4.1 on Google Reviews, with this one being at the top of that scale. It is fair to say that I ponder these things for too long perhaps. As it’s a Wetherspoons, I consider it fair game to go through the reviews and merrily repost some.

“Waited at the bar for ages to be served. Then a gentleman came to the bar and got served straight away. Made a comment about it and got a load of mouth from a bloke behind the bar! If you served your customers in a responsible amount of time you wouldn’t get any comments. Very rude and unprofessional.”

I love reviews like this as I want to know what the “comment” was, I bet it wasn’t what could be defined as helpful….

“Awful experience here would not recommend staff were incredibly rude and un-welcoming on arrival. Told the manager we were upset and he told us we wouldnt be getting served anymore because his staff felt ‘uncomfortable’ after we had Confronted them on their rudeness. Which we found bizarre. Disgusting hospitality”

After we had “confronted them”, I mean, I can’t imagine what has happened there.

“If i knew that in this pub you have to behave like in a church, i would never go there, the employee who kept shushing us because we were laughing too loud, refused to buy us the next round of beer, he was very rude (he had long bangs combed to the side ) honestly if you want to go there in a group of friends, learn sign language because you will be asked to leave. Waste of time .”

Good, I bet they were being too loud.

“Door supervisor was a clown, warned us he’d kick us out for laughing.”

Marvellous.

“If I could give it 0 stars I would. Bar staff served our group of 6 two drinks, and decided we’d had too many because we were laughing a lot. Very poor form, would not recommend if you want to stay for more than 1 drink. Idiots running the whole gaff”

And another win for the pub’s peace and quiet. There’s always a Greene King pub if people want to have a laugh.

“We got chucked out as a group of people at 21.30 on 9.03.19 ,just because one of us was a little alibriated, we were then ALL tarred with the same brush ,some of us had only just arrived,…..there was a man on the sidelines ,so drunk shouting his head off he was allowed to stay…. Sorry don’t understsnd……we all moved on and had a very nice evening ..”

Bloody alibriated customers.

“Can’t believe this place doesn’t allow well behaved dogs ..better behaved than some humans.. I understand not allowed in the pub but surely outside …”

I see a lot of reviews like this and I’m not sure whether each pub is meant to employ someone who judges what is a well behaved dog and what is a bloody nuisance. I can say that there are quite a lot of annoying dogs in pubs which I suspect the owners think is either cute, tolerable or acceptable.

“Have to pay on phone app upstairs , will not take cash ? Even though they advertise ” table service ” if you want to pay cash , you have to down stairs where they will take cash . ( Not upstairs ???? )”

Slightly aspirational in a Wetherspoons to expect to pay cash at the table, but there we go.

All told, I was happy with this visit and once again, JD Wetherspoon proved to be a reliable operator. They are sometimes rather too maligned in my view, but each to their own of course. As for Julian and I, we will continue to monitor their standards by visiting at off-peak times on a regular basis.

The fifth pub on our perambulation is the Greene King operated Compleat Angler, located near to Norwich’s main (well, only) railway station.

The building has a complex history, it was built in around the 1840s and was opened as the Norfolk Railway House, but had other names such as the Toll House. It was renamed to be the Compleat Angler in 1974, although it had a brief spell as the Windsors between 1984 and 1988. The pub was originally a Bullards pub and they advertised in the local press in 1853 for someone to take over the lease of the pub. Later on, the venue was taken over by Anglia Taverns before becoming part of Chef & Brewer (George Plunkett took a photo of the building in 1988 when it was a Chef & Brewer pub). Then the years of pubco rapid expansion came and it was taken over by Scottish & Newcastle, then the Spirit Group, then Punch Taverns and then Greene King saw an opportunity to punish the locals and they took over in around 2018.

The landlord in the 1870s was a man called Robert Rix and he also owned property, something that is known as he was summoned to court for failure to manage a well on his property in Canterbury Place in St. Benedict’s, but he “undertook to remedy the evil” which is handy…. Incidentally, I don’t specifically know why the pub name was chosen, but it relates to a book written by Izaak Walton in 1653. In the post-war period, a portion of the pub was known as the ‘Blue Room’ when it appeared to be more of a club arrangement.

Here it is in the mid-1880s, although very much surrounded by the distillery and vinegar works. Around two years after this map was published, they replaced the 1844 lattice iron arch bridge which had been built to access the railway station with a new and more substantial structure. This new bridge, which is still there today, is 16 metres long and 15 metres wide and it was constructed in the station yard of Norwich Railway Station and then they rolled it onto the foundations of the older bridge. I’ve been told that the downstairs pub cellar has some evidence of an older structure which faced the road, but I’ve never been down there to have a look.

The entire bar is clean and tidy, although it’s perhaps a little formulaic and lacking in any authentic heritage. This isn’t helped by the numerous massive refurbishments that take place here every few years, although they’ve never really brought the downstairs into full usage and it was closed when we visited. For several years this pub was used as the pub for away football fans, but it reverted to being a pub that home fans could use instead from around 2019.

The food menu and there are a range of traditional pub meals available. In all fairness to the venue, the food reviews seem generally quite positive, so they’re clearly doing something right. However, a customer recently posted a photo of a saucer sized plate of chips:

“Should be ashamed of themselves. Ordered “House seasoned” fries which cost £3.50. Received at most 10 normal fries with a dusting of salt. If you’re going to charge £3.50 for frozen fries at least give a decent amount.”

I’m with the customer here having seen the photo, but the pub stood firm in their response:

“Hello sorry that you weren’t happy with your visit today we unfortunately have a spec that we have to follow with weights of our products will raise this with our head office.”

The team members here all seemed friendly and helpful, although it’s hard to engage about beer as they don’t really have anything to engage about. I suppose they could chat away about the nearby JD Wetherspoon outlet which sells Greene King IPA and Greene King Abbot, but also has seven guest beers. Anyway, I mustn’t sneer, beer is for the many and not the few. Although I’d personally prefer the many had more choices, I won’t go on and on about it….

OK, I might go on about it for a bit longer. Here is the beer choice and I can’t help feeling that the reason Greene King doesn’t offer a guest beer here is because no-one would drink any of the stuff that they brew themselves. Mind you, I’ve always been a bit cynical and Julian does nothing to discourage that. There’s nothing here of any great interest (to me anyway), it’s poorly curated in terms of different beer styles and the prices were towards the higher end of the scale. Other than for a few generic national brands, their ‘craft beer’ selection is stuff they brew themselves and is frankly about as desirable as Christmas in the middle of March. I remember when they did offer guest beers here, but this appears to be a thing of a past judging from the Untappd check-ins over recent months.

I decided that the beer that might be the one I would dislike the least would be the Spring Break from Greene King. It’s arguably a pointless beer (by arguably, I mean I’ll argue that), but I’ll give them that it’s a well-kept pointless beer although it was devoid really of any flavour or depth of taste. It saddens me that some great small brewers are struggling whilst Greene King occupies a beautiful building and sells this.

There are a couple of negative reviews that the venue doesn’t have a disabled toilet and their defence is that as they’re a listed building they’re not allowed to make the changes. I’m puzzled about this, they’re not a traditionally listed building so they don’t have a Grade I or Grade II listing, but they do indeed have a local city listing. Given that their toilets are at one end of the building which is level and would enable disabled access, is it really the case that the council has refused a planning permission change to make some changes to these toilets? Historic England is generally very favourable to greater disability access in fully listed buildings, so this seems like a situation that the Compleat Anger are being treated a little unfairly if the council are indeed blocking disabled toilets.

I can’t help thinking what a wonderful pub this could be if Greene King sold it to another operator, although that might be being unkind. Having noted that, Jay Rayner has inspired me to have some semblance of honesty, so there we go. In terms of the positives, it has a prime site, it’s large in size and there are rather lovely river views from their terrace area, but I can’t forget their lack of guest ales and that all of the five beers they have on cask are rated towards the lower end of the scale on Untappd. Anyway, the team members were friendly, the pub was clean, the beer was well-kept and the surroundings were comfortable, but it’s not really a pub that is aimed at me as I like beer. I don’t think that Julian will mind me saying that it’s not really a pub that will be high on his repeat list, but I think in his eyes every pub is aimed at him if I’m being honest.

The King William IV pub is located at 33 Quebec Road in the Thorpe Hamlet area of the city and was the first in our latest perambulation.

The pub is in elevated position which is why Julian used his electric bike to get there and I reminded myself that the city council needs to do more removing some of these hills which really slow down walking times. There was originally a shepherd’s cottage on this site which would have likely been used by the shepherd tending his furry flock on the nearby Mousehold Health.

The first mention of the pub was in 1834, although it was likely trading a little before that. However, it’s named after the Monarch who was King between 1830 and 1837, so I imagine that it must have opened under this name between 1830 and 1834. It was also known as the William IV Tavern and Tea Gardens, making it sound like a cafe where Norwich residents rewarded themselves after climbing up there. It was a Youngs, Crawshay & Youngs pub for most of the Victorian period, before later becoming part of the Bullards, Watney Mann and then Norwich Brewery estates. Julian and I were talking yesterday about holding political meetings in pubs and this one was used by the Liberal Party in the late nineteenth century for their meetings, so there’s a little political history here.

The naming of the venue initially seem a little unclear to me, there are references to the William IV pub and also the Mousehold Tea Gardens throughout the period between the 1830s and 1890s, but the landlord seems the same and so the name seems a little interchangeable. However, a newspaper article in 1885 notes that “the King William IV public house is better known as Mousehold Tea Gardens” which explains the situation. In that same article, there’s a rather gruesome report about the deep well that was located in the pub’s beer garden. It was noted “in the afternoon that water from the well was unfit for use” and the reason for this soon became clear, a lady called Harriet Meens had fallen into it and died. The inquest decided that it was suicide and I imagine it put people off using the water for some time.

The Norfolk News mentioned in 1886 that Robert Baldry, a Tombland auctioneer, had been instructed to sell the household furniture of the outgoing landlord of the Mousehold Tea Gardens, namely George Randall Laws. In September 1847, it was reported that John Whitlam had died at his home in the morning after he fell down his stairs. The inquest noted that he had “been jovially regaling himself the previous evening at the Mousehold Tea Gardens”, so I think we can establish what might have happened there.

I’ve already mentioned one suicide that happened at the pub, but this story is from the EDP in April 1897:

“TRAGIC AFFAIR AT THORPE – SCENE IN TELEGRAPH LANE.

About half-past ten yesterday morning a man, named Charles Hudson, aged 38, of 95, St. Leonard’s Road, Thorpe Hamlet, made a determined attempt to take his own life in the presence of his son, a lad aged twelve years. It appears that Hudson, who was in the employ of the Great Eastern Railway, had been unwell for the past few days, and his wife is also seriously ill. In consequence of the condition of his wife, he slept on Thursday night in an arm chair downstairs. Shortly after ten yesterday morning he left the house. His son, knowing that he had been queer in his mind, at once left the house to follow his father up. Hudson, after walking along St. Leonard’s Road, turned into Telegraph Lane, and when about 100 yards from his house produced a shoemaker’s knife from his pocket and commenced cutting his throat. The little fellow pluckily attempted to get the knife away from his father, but failing in his efforts at once ran off to the house of a man named Phillips, who lives close by, and informed him of what was taking place. Phillips immediately ran to the spot, and knocked the knife out of Hudson’s hand, but the unfortunate man had by that time inflicted a severe gash in his throat, and was bleeding profusely, a large pool of blood marking the spot where he had stood. Very shortly Police-constable Whall came upon the scene, and the man’s neck having been roughly bound up, James Ellis, the landlord of the King William IV, public-house was communicated with, and he immediately put his pony in a trap and drove the unfortunate man, who was unable to speak, to the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital. There his injuries were dressed by the medical staff, and he was placed in one of the wards. On inquiry at the Hospital we were informed that Hudson was in a very precarious condition.”

James Ellis was landlord of the pub for around 15 years at the end of the nineteenth century and bless that poor lad who did what he could.

The area in the late nineteenth century was becoming more residential. The pub is the PH in the middle of the above map, all at a time when Mousehold Heath was finding itself getting smaller and smaller.

Back to the present day and was perhaps not the best first thing to see and I don’t know what’s happened here.

The beer options were a little wider than I expected, although there was no real ale. The prices were, slightly surprisingly perhaps, towards the higher end of the scale. I was served out of turn, but a different server came along and she was helpful and efficient. In terms of the atmosphere, this was I would say the most vibrant atmosphere that we’ve encountered inside a venue, but it’s always positive to see a pub with lots of customers. I’m slightly less excited about showing game shows on a large TV behind the bar, but each to their own I guess.

There is a large beer garden and we escaped to this for a quieter al fresco drinking experience as the noise volume was a touch higher than we would have liked. Julian is a party animal at heart, but there are limits to even his earthiness.

It’s a beautiful building with some period features, although the smoking shelter doesn’t perhaps entirely blend in.

There’s a little BBQ element as well, I can imagine that this proves popular in the summer months. It’s possible to hire the entire venue for parties and they also have rooms upstairs which are quite expensive, but are well reviewed.

The beer was the Alpacalypse from Salt Brewery which I had in their Leeds taproom a couple of weeks ago. It’s light, juicy, tropical and very drinkable.

It’s an interesting venue and I think it would have been a somewhat different experience if we hadn’t visited on a Friday night. There are a couple of pool tables and a darts board, with the pub having a community feel to it. It’s probably not the place to visit for a quiet drink, but it’s obviously hitting the mark at getting trade in which is a happy experience for any pub at the moment.

And my now usual apology that the photos are from the dying days of my last phone, sorry for the low quality of them. I have to confess that I didn’t know that there was a third Coach and Horses pub in Norwich, the other two get more attention and we will visit them in due course on our travels. Julian, who has spent time in every pub in the city, was of course aware of the existence of this venue although it was my first time there. This one, located on Union Street where it meets Coach and Horses Street, although the number of pubs with this name makes it harder to discover more about its history. Slightly surprisingly, there have only been four pubs with this name in the history of the city (according to the excellent https://www.norfolkpubs.co.uk/) and three of them are still open. The venue became a pub in the 1830s and it has been operated by John Hardy, Lacons, Whitbread and is now owned by Admiral Taverns. George Plunkett has a rather lovely photo of it from its time as a Lacons pub when a lovely new shiny housing estate was built around it. The Norfolk Pubs web-site mentions that it was a French restaurant for a period, but I can’t find out anything about that, but will add it to this page if anyone lets me know. Actually, I should add, if anyone has anything interesting to tell me about any pub which we visit, then do let me know.

On that Nick Stone (https://www.invisibleworks.co.uk/) helpfully adds:

“What’s interesting about it from a urban geography perspective is it doesn’t actually align with Walpole Street which is the corner it sits on, that’s at an entirely different angle to the building so the eastern face of the building actually lines up with Coach and Horses Street which ran at right angles to Union Street but no longer exists. Bear in mind this whole area was extensively damaged several times from 1941 to 1943, especially on the Vauxhall Street, Essex Street and Rupert Street side of the area which was possibly blast from an aerial mine, the redevelopment was inevitable post-war as so little was left of what now forms the park and Suffolk Square. It’s quite rare that it still retains it’s form when so much was knocked down. The Vauxhall Tavern which used to be on the corner of Walpole and Vauxhall was interesting, a proper post-war kinda-prefab estate-pub job from what I can remember of it, think it was demolished in the late nineties or early noughties. That had replaced the original building which was destroyed by the raid on 18th Feb 1941, killing the landlord Fred Murrell and his family. Shame it’s gone really.”

Here it is in the 1880s and it feels a slight shame that its address is usually given as Union Street, rather than the Coach and Horses Street which is named after it. I’m sure that there’s a story behind Jeremiah Scales, the landlord between 1879 and 1884, who put an advert in the local paper when he left saying that “I won’t be responsible for any debts contracted by my wife Harriet Scales”, it all sounds most intriguing.

There’s no real ale available and I was struggling to find anything interesting, although Guinness is available as a fall back. I’ve never had it before, but I went for the Mann’s Brown Ale which is brewed by Marston’s. I’ll likely never have it again, it was OK in so much as there was a slight taste of toffee but I’d say that there was more taste of cupboard than anything else. The Quavers were delicious though. Julian liked it more, but I think he likes beers that taste of cupboard. I more look for some sour which tastes of decadent tart fruit or an imperial stout laden with cherries and coconut.

The photo quality doesn’t make this evident, but the Guinness pump has chargers coming out of it, which seems a marvellous idea to me.

The bar arrangement and the staff member was merrily taking photos of their collection of board games. There is a community feel to this pub and there are events such as karaoke that take place here. During our visit, there was a customer who was quite vibrant and excitable in his demeanour, but that’s not a criticism of the pub as the staff dealt with him perfectly well and it felt like a pub that the local community are happy with. We were made welcome and I felt comfortable during the visit and it’s important to support venues like this as it’s easy to overlook them given how close they are to the huge number of options in Norwich city centre. It’s an interesting venue and although it was relatively quiet when we visited, it has been seemingly doing well for several years under its current ownership which is quite marvellous.

Apologies again for the poor photo quality, they were taken on my old phone which has fortunately been replaced since we visited this pub in mid-February on one of our perambulations around Norwich. This was our visit to the Coachmakers Arms on St. Stephen’s Road in Norwich, a pub which dates to the seventeenth century and is a former coaching inn apparently built on the site of a former asylum. The record of it being a pub date to the mid-eighteenth century and the breweries who have owned it include the Tompson Brewery, Morgans, Steward & Patteson, Watney Mann, Norwich Brewery and Tager Inns and there’s more about the latter on the page about the Cricketers’ Rest which isn’t far away.

The pub has an external mural by John Moray-Smith (1889–1958) and he also created the one at Berstrete Gates.

Julian parking his bike in the courtyard and there was a major crime committed here in 1905….. The text from the local newspaper of the time reads:

“CHARGE AGAINST A SCHOOLBOY DISMISSED

Charles James Nichols, schoolboy, of Sixteen Row, Lakenham, was charged with stealing a box containing 14 lbs. of raisins, value 3s. 4d., the property of George Daniel Tann, between November 21st and 24th. Mrs. Bloom stated that last Thursday afternoon a number of boys made a cave at the bottom of her garden on Sigismund Road. She heard them talking about plums, and afterwards found a coat belonging to one of them on the ground and some raisins. A little boy, aged about ten, who said he was with the defendant all the afternoon was called as a witness; but the Clerk said it would not be fair to him to ask him to incriminate himself, and his evidence was dispensed with. The ostler at the Coachmakers’ Arms, St. Stephen’s, said that on the 21st inst. several boxes of raisins, belonging to the prosecutor, were left in the yard. George Tann, a grocer, of Forncett, said there should have been ten boxes. He did not count them, and did not miss one until the policeman made inquiries. The Clerk said it appeared difficult to connect the defendant with the case, which seemed to be one of confession. The defendant’s mother said the lad was no trouble at home. He was never out at night. The Chairman said if he was not better looked after he would bring her to sorrow. There was a difficulty about the case, and it would be dismissed.”

The lad became an “habitual criminal” (I always think of Norman Stanley Fletcher when hearing that phrase) according to police records in 1913 and he had taken to the theft of cycles, which ties in back to Julian parking his bike there quite neatly. He went on to fight in the First World War (Charles, not Julian) with, I think, some distinction and he went on to have a long life.

The courtyard area which I can imagine is busy during sporting events. The building is Grade II listed and I’ll just quote from the listed building record:

“Former use unknown, now Public House. C17 and Late C18 Rendered. Stucco quoins and window surrounds. Black pantile roof. 3 storeys, 4 bays. Off-centre door with plain surround and small decorated consoles supporting a flat hood. One sash window to each side with 3 lights per sash. Raised and moulded, eared and haunched surrounds with keystone. Sash windows to first floor with identical surrounds to ground floor windows. 2nd floor sash windows with simple raised and moulded surrounds. Projecting, moulded box- cornice. Hipped roof. C17 ceiling beams with knicked chamfer-stops. Large frieze on wall to right showing St. Stephen’s Gate by Moray-Smith, 1937.”

The beer selection, although it wasn’t entirely clear what they did have. I ordered two beers from these pump clips and was told they were unavailable so I thought it best to ask what they did actually have and I wasn’t sure that I was any the wiser, but I think they had the Silver Adder from Mauldons, the Abbot Ale from Greene King and the Old Speckled Hen from Morland (Greene King). I think, but wasn’t told, that customers should ignore the pump clips and just look at the barrels as there’s gravity dispense.

As can be seen from this advert from 1873, the serving directly from the barrel is nothing new. Victoria Station, which was located opposite, hadn’t served passengers since 1916 but it remained open for freight traffic although the buildings were damaged during the Second World War and pulled down soon after. The station site was replaced with offices occupied by Marsh, but they were taken down in late 2024 and early 2025 which must have impacted the pub’s trade a little. Not unlike other pubs, they advertised for a ‘girl’ in 1913, noting they wanted one aged around 25 and from the country. They didn’t want any city folk, whether older or younger, cluttering up their residence.

I went for the Silver Adder from Mauldons, which was crisp, hoppy and well-kept, but it’s all a bit light on flavour for me.

There is food served on weekday lunches and the pub was clean and tidy, with the interior feeling historic and interesting. The on-line reviews are positive and the service during our visit was friendly and efficient. The beer selection wasn’t really my cup of tea, or indeed jug of beer, although the Oscar Wilde would have been my choice if they did have it. The pub also sells Cruzcampo, but I make no comment as I don’t judge…. There’s quite a cosy atmosphere and there’s also an upstairs function room.

Taken during one of our perambulations, apologies that these photos were taken during the dying days of my last phone, so the quality of the imagery isn’t exactly top notch. The York is a traditional Victorian corner pub which opened in 1878 and it has been owned by breweries including Bullards, Watney Mann, Courage in the past. I didn’t go and check on this occasion, although I have done before, but there’s a large beer garden out the back which used to be a bowling green and the pub’s web-site notes that there’s now “a Pétanque pitch in the pub garden – a nod to The York bowling club who were based at The York in the early 1920s”. Incidentally, the pub has traditionally been called the York Tavern, although it’s usually shortened to just the York now.

In 1907, the funeral of the landlord Alfred Dashwood took place, he appears regularly in newspapers and seems to have been an interesting character. He had started his career as a plumber and gas-fitter before becoming landlord here and he had built up the bowling club to be “one of the principal clubs in Norwich” which is some considerable achievement for the period (I assume, I think it’s like being the home of the best bar billiards team). He was also active in the Eaton Ward Conservative Association the Norfolk Chronicle mentioned after his funeral, but maybe that’s what happens when you become a pub landlord. I’ll check with Julian. He had been advertising for a servant (Alfred that is, not Julian) and preferred “a country girl” and he had hoped that she would be about 18. I’m not sure that publicans are best advised to advertise for that sort of thing now.

The Westminster Gazette noted the fate of a later landlord, Albert Plane who had taken over in 1908, previously known only to the local press as someone caught refusing to admit the police to his premises. There was something of a tragedy, as the newspaper reported in May 1922:

“Albert Plane, licensee of the York Tavern, rose to his family cups of tea, and later was found lying dead at the foot of the stairs. He had suffered from influenza and latterly was affected by the heat”.

I’m not sure I’ll walk by the bottom of the stairs again without thinking of this.

Just looking back at some photos from 2021, this might be a clearer photo of outside.

And some old photos of outside, I can’t remember why Nathan and I were sitting outside. It was either because it was full inside or I wanted to see this large beer garden.

Back to modern times and the official visit from the Two Julians (we never announce in advance that we’re coming, we don’t want any red carpet quickly thrown outside for us). There were three real ales on, the Sussex Best from Harvey’s, the All Day Long from All Day Brewing Company and the Let’s Cask from All Day Brewing Company. I went for the latter option first, which was smooth with slight Twix flavours and was well kept. As can be seen, there’s often usually a fourth ale as well, but the Encore from Lacons had just run out.

Tom is very good at posing for photos and I will declare that I’ve gone to see the rather formidable bar talent that is Mr Saunders a few times now at the York.

His Untappd page is a thing of beauty with his 10,294 check-ins…. Above is a photo of the day after he got his 10,000th check-in when I popped in to congratulate him. Anyway, enough about him and back to the main event of Julian and myself. The pub was spotlessly clean, with the surfaces clean, dry and not sticky, so it was a comfortable place to sit for a while.

I was planning to go home, but due to some confusion between Julian and I, he seemed to think we were staying out until 03:00 rather than the 19:00 that I had anticipated. However, I went along with his plan as I can be easily led. With that, the food menu appeared.

The York does an evening meal deal thing for £12 which includes a pint of real ale, a rather agreeable deal. The deal, of which I got the last one, was the venison sausages with braised cabbage, mash potatoes and a red onion gravy. Julian had some decadent steak option, but he’s getting quite middle class if I’m being honest ever since he’s become a senior pub executive. Anyway, the sausages were meaty and delicious, the mash was smooth and the gravy was plentiful. My crisis at the time was my phone kept losing charge, but Tom resolved that problem (just as Charlie had to resolve that problem in North Walsham – there’s a theme here that won’t continue now I have my new phone) so all was well. My second beer was the All Day Long which was malty, bitter and went well with those sausages. I must admit I thought that I had ordering halves, but Julian expressed concerned that this wasn’t sufficient to go with a meal. He’s very good at that sort of logical thinking.

It’s a bit of an expedition for me to get to the York, but it’s brilliantly managed, welcoming and the beer is impeccably kept. I hadn’t realised about the evening meal, but I thought that it was excellent value. The service is obviously wonderful and the food/drink balance here is managed well with the pub feeling as if it’s got a friendly vibe. Definitely recommended, and go and wave at Tom as well.

Apologies again for the quality of these photos, they were when my previous phone was having some difficulties…. Anyway, they’ll do. The Adam Eve is located near to Norwich Cathedral, it has a reputation for being an old pub and the owner Rita will have been there 25 years this year which is some going. This was part of our perambulations around Norwich pubs.

This pub is widely claimed to be the oldest in Norwich and there is evidence that there was a building here in the mid-thirteenth century and a suggestion that stonemasons building the nearby Norwich Cathedral would have been drinking here when there was a brewhouse on site. The current building is though seventeenth century, although altered quite substantially in the twentieth century. The pub was the last in Norwich to serve directly from the barrel until a bar was added in the early 1970s. The owners have been Youngs, then Bullards, then Watney Mann, then the Norwich Brewery and then Chef and Brewer before it came into private hands. In December 1902, Youngs, Crawshay & Youngs (to quote their full name) advertised the pub as available to let and they noted the full licence, good yard and stabling. They seem to struggle with this as they were still advertising the pub using the same terms in January 1904 and they then started again in 1906.

There are fewer newspaper articles than I would have expected about the pub, just quite a lot of inquests that were held here, which was commonplace in pubs. One is of note, a 14 year old boy called John Boltz who drowned in the River Wensum in a location very close to the pub. The landlord in 1814, Matthew Peacock, was declared bankrupt and it was noted that his furniture was for sale, “including a four-post bed, other bedsteads, feather beds and bedding, sheets, table linen, a panelled sliding partition, a thirty hour clock, kitchen range, bath stove, copper and furnace, liquor cases, hand lights and all manner of other stuff.”

As an aside, I had to ask Google Gemini about that clock and it noted:

“Thirty-hour clocks are clocks that need to be wound every 30 hours, as opposed to the more common eight-day clocks that only need to be wound once a week. They were most popular in the 18th and 19th centuries, and they are now considered to be antique clocks. Thirty-hour clocks are typically weight-driven, which means that they are powered by a weight that is suspended on a rope or chain. 1 The weight slowly descends as the clock runs, and it needs to be wound back up every 30 hours.”

This video is from 1984 and is worth a watch, with a customer saying they went there to get away from technology……

The bit of the pub we were able to sit in, which is the section near to the entrance which overlooks the road. It was a little chilly inside, although that had no negative impact on me. The toilets possibly needed a little attention, but all else seemed to be in order. There are some old photos of the pub on the walls as well to add a bit of character.

As Julian noted, the area down the steps was just for the chosen ones, so there was a bit of a pile up in the small bar section that was open. I’ve never actually got as far as going down those steps, I think all of my visits I’ve ended up in this section of the pub. The pub’s web-site isn’t available at the moment, but the old one mentions that the building is haunted, adding:

“The ghost of Lord Sheffield – hacked to death nearby on August 1st by rebels – is still reputed to haunt the building. So too are spectres of some of the French speaking medieval monks who lived and worked here. Somewhere below you, one monk is believed to be buried!”

George Plunkett also has a glorious photo from 1939.

The bar area, which is just a little cramped for the poor bar staff (not that there’s much anyone can do about that, they’ve done well to carve out what space they have), and I think it’s linked to the lower bar that I’ve never got to see. The on-line reviews are unusually mixed for a traditional pub and a couple have queried why they weren’t allowed to have a look in the lower bar area, especially as there’s apparently evidence of an old Saxon well down there. I kind of understand that, it’s one of the oldest pubs in Norwich and I think it’s inevitable that customers might want to have a little look around. I think I’d rather let others read reviews directly if they so wish rather than me pointing any out.

The quality of that photo, my apologies…. The beer is one of my favourites, Old Peculier from Theakston and it was malty and smooth, kept well. There are usually around three real ales available and I think the standard of beer keeping is very high.

It’s not really a pub I’ve ever much engaged with, but the service has always been polite and I’ve eaten outside a couple of times over the last decade as they have some external tables. It’s worth a visit for anyone interested in the history of Norwich pubs as it has played a large part in that story. It’s certainly not a pub for Julian as it closes at 21:00 (22:00 on Fridays and Saturdays, 18:00 on Sundays) and he’s normally not out until after then. Anyway, back to anyone running a pub for 25 years, that shows some considerable commitment and energy, so congratulations are clearly in order. And Julian and I were disappointed not to see the ghost of Lord Sheffield, as that might have put me off my beer.

This visit was from a few weeks ago (as part of our Two Julians tour of Norwich since we’ve already straddled great chunks of the Waveney), when we meandered to the Robin Hood pub located near to the Cottage and also not far from Barrack Street.

There has been a pub with this name since the mid-eighteenth century, but it was in a different location. Here’s an early 1880s map of where it was, with the pub looking out onto Barrack Street and there was no shortage of other pubs along that street. Soon after this, the pub was moved to its current new purpose building which faces onto Mousehold Street. It then became a Watney Mann, then Courage and then Pubmaster pub. It’s somewhat of an unlikely survivor as it’s tucked away on a back street and indeed it has been closed for some short periods over the years.

In the Eastern Evening News in January 1884 it was reported that the landlord, Frederick Marcon, had gotten himself into some trouble.

“Frederick Marcon of the Robin Hood public-house, Pockthorpe, was summoned for assaulting Stephen Curl, Barrack Street, fish-hawker, on the 27th inst. Mr. Linay appeared for the prosecution, and Mr. Sparrow defended. The assault was committed on Sunday evening last at the Robin Hood public-house. It appeared that Curl, accompanied by his brother and a man named Hicks, went to the Robin Hood. Defendant’s brother was also present, and without any provocation whatever struck complainant’s brother, causing him to be thrown to the ground. On his getting up defendant continued the assault by seconding his brother’s efforts, and on complainant going to his brother’s assistance, he was struck on the cheek and nose. Complainant was also thrown to the ground, and while in that position both the Marcons kicked him. The two companions of complainant were also called and corroborated. For the defence, Mr. Sparrow called defendant’s brother who said that one of them ordered some ale, but this was refused by his brother on account of their being “half drunk.” Defendant then asked them if they had come in for a row, and they replied with an oath that they had come with that object. The three then commenced on witness, and when defendant tried to protect him he was also struck. Hicks it appeared remained neutral, for he took up his position in a corner and watched the proceedings. The two Curls were eventually removed by their father and mother.

William Curl, brother of complainant, now charged the defendant Marcon with assaulting him at the same time. Curl was thrown to the ground, and while in that position he was kicked by Maroon on the head. Stephen Curl, the first complainant, also preferred a charge of assault against Thomas Marcon. Defendant hit him once in the cheek, knocked him down, and kicked him in the ribs. William Curl also charged Thomas Maroon with a similar offence. Curl alleged that Maroon struck him on the lip, the result of which was that he fell to the ground. Mr. Sparrow now urged that it was positively absurd to suppose that a landlord and his assistant should on the appearance of three customers immediately strike them, especially when there was no provocation to warrant it. The Bench then retired and on their return into Court the Chairman said that after carefully weighing the evidence in their minds they had come to the conclusion that they ought to convict. The defendant Marcon would be fined for the assault upon Stephen Curl 10s. and 15s. costs; in default, fourteen days’ hard labour; and for the assault on William Curl, a fine of 5s. and 9s. costs would be inflicted; in default, fourteen days. Thomas Marcon, for assaulting Stephen Curl, would be mulcted to the amount of 10s. and 7s. costs, in default 14 days; and for the assault upon William Curl, his brother, a fine of 20s. and 7s. costs would be imposed; in default 14 days.”

Probably a little sub-optimal for the pub landlord…. Fortunately, the welcome when we arrived at the pub was much more engaging from the current staff member although the venue did get in the news around three years ago when there was some considerable controversy relating to charitygate, but I’ll let individuals Google that if they so desire as I don’t think it relates to the current owners.

Some of the beer selection.

I went for the John Smiths and it tasted as expected and was reasonably priced. I also always appreciate when a pub stocks Mini Cheddars.

The pool table rather dominates matters in the main room, meaning they have to sit carefully around the edges of the room as is visible from the above seating, and then there’s one other smaller room. There’s a strong community element to this venue and the darts and pool teams are important to them. There was a bucket to catch the drips from the leak upstairs, but the staff member did apologise for that arrangement.

Julian looks enthralled, but he’s not really a TV in pub type person. Indeed, nor am I, but it added some musical entertainment to our visit. There is karaoke every Sunday afternoon and although this is evidently not going to encourage me in, it looks like a popular event. The TV must be a recent addition as the then owners were telling the EDP in 2023 that they were proudly a TV free zone. Since I always have a little look at on-line reviews…

“Came here with the pool team just too find out that it’s not child friendly, the owners allowed our captains child in for this time (via phone call) fair enough. Then get told the child can’t just press buttons on the fruit machines (not actually gambling/playing) anything because of licensing, for your information review the licensing laws on gambling as you clearly don’t know the laws and it’s not against the law for kids to be in a pub after a certain time it’s just a in-house rule, get out of your 1920’s pothole and get with the times.”

There’s one quite, er, direct review that the pub probably quite rightly didn’t respond to. I recall long ago when getting my licence that the law is quite clear that children shouldn’t be using these AWP machines in any shape or form, so it’s not unreasonable for a landlord to ask children not to play on them even for fun. And it is against licensing law for kids to be in a pub after a certain time if that’s what their licence says. Anyway, nearly all of the other reviews are positive, so as to add some balance.

It’s a pub that is off the beaten track and so is very much a community pub, but the welcome was friendly and clean, although it did need something of a refurbishment in places. All rather lovely, it’s worth popping in for anyone nearby.