It might be a long way
from anywhere, but Naardge is brilliant. Not only
is it full of fantastic pubs, but it's a friendly
place too. This is, therefore, one of the top days
out of the season, and one I eagerly await.
And for once, the ground is close to the railway
station, a matter of minutes' walk down Koblenz Avenue.
As it happens, this means that both are on the fringe
of the city centre itself, the wrong side of the
Wensum from Norwich centre. Come out of the station
and cross over the river to get there.
Many of the below listed pubs sell Adnams along
with others, which is good news. This fine independent
brewery, based in Southwold in neighbouring Suffolk,
makes excellent beer. Their standard bitter is a
complex pint, while their stronger Broadside and
Fisherman's are both well worth seeking out too.
Try, as well, to get some of the splendid products
of the local Woodforde's brewery. Their Wherry is
the best known of their beers and is an extraordinary
pint; there's so much going on in there. Woodforde’s
Mardler’s Mild should also be sampled. Other
small Norfolk breweries to look out for include Buffy’s,
Iceni, and Wolf. Hopefully, you will be able to avoid
the clutches of regional giant Greene King, who continue
to peddle their insipid IPA.
If you're pushed for time or don't want to go too
far, there are two belting boozers close by the station,
and therefore within easy walking distance of the
ground. On Thorpe Road just north of the station
you'll find the Coach and Horses. This is a big,
fairly modern pub, that gets very busy before and
after the game. On my visits, it has been absolutely
heaving, with plenty from both sides and drinkers
spilling onto the outside drinking area, all getting
on perfectly well, the way things stood be. Better
still, the pub brews its own beer. The Chalk Hill
brewery lives here. Be aware of the Flintknapper's
Mild, strong for its style, and a dark and chewy
beer. It's a good pint, but the Brewery Tap and CHB
bitters might be more suited to all day drinking.
You may also find some of this beer in other pubs
around town. They do pretty good food too, in large
amounts, making this your best bet for pre-match
fodder, and the staff are friendly enough. Curiously
enough a gay man tried to chat me up in here in April
2003. I was heartened to think that I haven’t
quite lost my pulling power.
Anyway, come out through the back entrance, shimmy
right and you're on Rosary Road, where you'll come
to, surprisingly enough, the Rosary Tavern. This
was a quieter and less obvious pub, with a good range
of changing beers, and a tendency to turn the heating
up to full blast. Their website (for pubs seem to
have them these days) is at www.rosarytavern.co.uk.
We’re overlook the curious carved frogs and
such like that decorate the pub.
If you carried along Rosary Road you’d come
to the ring road, and turning right at the next roundabout
would take you to Ketts Tavern on Ketts Hill. A curious
place this, perhaps slightly lacking in character,
being decorated more in a modern than traditional
style. There’s nothing wrong with the beer,
though, which on our visit consisted of Buffy’s
and long-forgotten, never seen since, but excellent
guests.
Back onto the ring road, and around until you come
to Silver Road off Barrack Street, is the Cottage.
This was very much a locals’ pub, and not one
of the genteel suburban locals’ places we come
onto below. So this is where the working class of
Norwich hang out. We were regarded with curiosity
when we called in after the match – visiting
football fans don’t often drop by – but
the beer, more Buffy’s, was good.
Alternatively, striking out from the station across
the Wensum, and therefore away from the ground, there
are a couple of good pubs close to the cathedral.
As it happens, the cathedral's very pleasant, perhaps
rather uninspiring outside but more rewarding on
the inside. Funnily enough when we enjoyed an Easter
weekend in Norwich a couple of years ago there were
plenty of Clarets in there on Easter Monday morning,
although it did seem to start emptying at around
five to eleven. There are also some interesting medieval
streets that we wandered around while waiting for
the pubs to open. Norwich does do tourism, and if
you're interested in a weekender and can keep out
of the pubs, I'm told that as well as the Norman
cathedral they can offer a 12th Century castle keep
and a mustard shop.
On Wensum Street, close to the Cathedral, the Ribs
of Beef sits on top of the river. This is a pleasant,
friendly multi-levelled pub. On a couple of visits
it has sold a good, variable range, including a mild
called Military Mild. You can get down close to the
river and I’m sure by the time you get to the
gents you’re actually under water. Their website
can be found at www.ribsofbeef.co.uk.
Up by the courts on the splendidly named St Martin-at-Palace
Plain you'll find the Wig
and Pen, a traditional,
beamed cottage, although inside a professional, polished,
emphasis-on-food sort of place. Nothing wrong with
the beer, which if I recall right included the ever
appealing Adnams and a good pint of Buffy's.
There are one or two other city centre pubs I know
on the other side of the mound of the castle, although
they’re not all the greatest. St Andrew’s
Tavern on, as it happens, St Andrew’s Street,
is a decent enough watering hole though. It’s
a rather bare and plain Adnams pub selling, in addition
to beer from that brewery’s range, some guest
beers, which on my visit included a good pint of
Deuchar’s IPA.
Nearby, the Vine on Dove Street, a small sidestreet
off the pedestrianised market area close to the Guildhall,
had a lot going for it. It was a tiny pub, with just
the one small room, and grubby and unchanged, with
the compulsory antique regulars and eccentric old
woman on the bar. All well and good so far, but the
Adnams wasn't remotely up to scratch.
Better going there, though, than the Gardeners
Arms on Timberhill, or the Murderer's Arms, as it seemed
to have rebranded on last visit, having apparently
turned itself into a murder theme bar. Whatever next?
Predictably awful, and with bland beer, it turned
out to be a real waste of everyone's time.
As is often the case in cities these days, you’ll
find the best pubs are on the outskirts. It's like
we're sacrificing our town and city centres to loud,
obnoxious kids who go out to get wrecked on lurid
bottled alcohol, fight, puke and rut on a weekend
night. We're abandoning our centres for lowest common
denominator circuit drinkers. I prefer a more expansive
approach to hedonism, but there you go. Anyway, for
practical purposes, in Norwich, as in so many places,
the most interesting pubs are on the outskirts, and
take a bit of searching out.
Down past the Castle on the Chapelfield Road stretch
of the ring road you have the Champion. It was an
advanced stage of the evening when I called in, and
I have some memory of walking by a park with a fairground
in it before we came to a shabby but cosy pub. I
had an excellent pint of Elgood's Black Dog mild,
but with guest beers a plenty, who knows what they'll
have available?
Further down off the ring road on Grove Road is
the Trafford
Arms. This was a real locals' pub, which
was packed on a Sunday night, even though it's a
big place. We made ourselves quite unpopular by being
better at the quiz than any of the locals, who were
taking it incredibly seriously. I have a vague memory
of drinking a mild, perhaps Woodforde's Mardler's.
A little to the east of here are two pubs which
aren't that far from the ground, if you know your
way around. Hall Road runs off the Queen's Road section
of the ring road. On here you have the Billy
Bluelight,
a Woodforde's pub, which means no further recommendation
is needed. (Okay, so I remember going there but I
can't remember anything about it - but as a Woodforde's
pub it will be good.)
Situated handily precisely across the road is the
King's Arms. This, I have an idea, was a low-ceilinged
sort of place, perhaps dingy, with a large beer range.
Can you tell these were the last two pubs we went
to that Easter night?
There are also some excellent pubs clustered on
the western side of the city centre. These are a
serious walk from the ground. Catching a cab would
be better. If you do have the time, make the effort,
because they're worth it.
The Alexandra on Stafford Street is a real locals'
boozer, a kind of classic corner of the street pub.
They honestly may look at you when you walk in. But
it's friendly, and on Saturday you can buy a nourishing
roll. It's a small and therefore crowded place, with
beer from the Chalk Hill brewery, which was excellent.
A little to the north of here, and tucked away unassumingly
on obscure West End Street, happens to be one of
the very best pubs in England. Ladies and gentlemen,
welcome to the Fat Cat. We are, of course, miles
away from Carrow Road now. But with a pub like this,
who cares? It was voted the best pub in the land
a couple of years ago, and having visited a few times,
I concur heartily. Basically, they sell lots of beer.
Absolutely loads of it. On the first visit we were
struggling to make our minds up from a huge range
on the beer blackboard… when we realised there
was another board and we'd only been taking in half
the menu. As well as an intimidating rank of handpumps
they have a load of casks from which they pour beer.
With 20 or so beers generally on offer, you’re
bound to find something you like here. Among the
beers you’ll find those from local breweries,
and real mild and stout as well as the bitter. If
you’re feeling really silly you’ll get
real cider, and the range extends to a good selection
of bottled Belgian and other quality foreign beers,
along with Belgian beers on draught. Looking back,
I’m amazed I’ve ever managed to get out
of here and go to the match. Food, quite properly,
does not extend further than homemade rolls and excellent
pork pies. The interior is tidy and woody, and the
only thing wrong with this pub, apart from its distance
from the ground, is that it's quite narrow, so it
fills up quickly, and you're always in someone's
way. But this is a minor quibble. For beer-lovers,
this is an essential stop. Visit their website for
a jaw-dropping list of current beers.
There are a couple of nice pubs even further out,
in the Eaton district south of the city centre. Again,
this is a cab job. The Beehive on Leopold Road was
a lovely place, quiet, comfortable, un-messed about
with, well looked-after and welcoming. Beers came
from Woodforde’s and Wolf as well as others.
It was worth the trip out.
Nearby is the Eaton Cottage on Mount Pleasant. Rather
a quaint, old-fashioned place, this, reminiscent
of a Victorian corner shop. Once all pubs must have
been like it. More good beer was here amongst the
guests.
As if all that wasn’t enough, Suffolk-based
Claret Igor Wowk rectifies an omission and offers
another pre-match option close to the ground, thus: "I
recommend the excellent Ferry Boat Inn on King Street,
which backs onto the River Wensum. It slopes down
to the river and there are bars on several different
levels. Last year there were several Burnley supporters
and Norwich fans mixing quite happily." Apparently
it's a Greene King house. Igor also gives us a useful
tip, adding, "You may or may not be aware of
the facility offered by Multimap. You just type in
the name of a pub and the town and bingo, you get
a downloadable street map, which can pan out to a
road map." Cheers, Igor.
A nameless Norwich supporter also got in touch recently
to make a further suggestion, recommending the Clarence
Harbour. This is next to the away end, and, according
to our correspondent, has a “good mixture of
home and away fans” as well as apparently selling
some kind of real ale.
As for the ground, it was redeveloped earlier than
most (Norwich sensibly opting to spend all their
money on the ground as opposed to sustaining top
flight football) and has now somewhat been overtaken
by events elsewhere. The away stand was, of course,
the shabbiest, oldest part of the ground. It was
a poor stand with a bad view. Still, now it’s
been demolished the prospects for away fans are far
worse. If you haven’t already seen the photos,
be aware that the away section consists of a straggle
of seats in front of the demolished stand at pitch
level, two rows deep, with no protection of any kind
from the elements. Rotherham supporters who sat in
there told us you get an excellent view… of
the players’ legs. It will be impossible to
generate any kind of atmosphere, and be warned also
that the stewards are apparently very keen for people
to sit down. Stewarding was bad enough on our April
2003 visit, when one steward threatened to throw
my brother out for doing no more than calling David
Healy a "cheat", thereby managing to incite
a significant section of the away end for no good
reason.
Of course, the good thing is that with such poor
away facilities on offer, Norwich have of course
reduced their ticket prices. Only joking.
As for the food, you would expect it to be excellent
at a club run by the saintly Delia, but it isn't.
On previous visits it's been rubbish. In the old
stand you had to find the food place by going through
a door cunningly marked 'Ladbrokes betting'. On offer
was some kind of disgusting minced Pukka thing, while
the vegetarian option was a packet of salt and vinegar
crisps! I must have missed that episode of 'How to
Cook'. In April 2003, the pies were like bricks.
I don't think anyone finished theirs. Perhaps they'll
build the new stand out of them.
To plan your day out to precision, go to the splendid
Norwich Pub
Guide. Excellent site this, meticulously
maintained. You can search for pubs, look at city
centre pub listings, view choice crawls and check
out a personal top ten of Norwich pubs - and all
with maps. Truly, these are my kind of people. One
day, when I've managed to drop all match reporting,
comment and other commitments, this is what the Beer
Drinker's Guide to Burnley FC will become.
The Norwich and Norfolk branch of CAMRA also has
its own website, where you can read their 'Norfolk
Nips' newsletter online. This may be a bit esoteric
for some, but I find these free sheets that you pick
up in pubs a valuable source of information for this
guide. On balance, though, I prefer the paper-based
version, as you can read it on the toilet. And on
that bombshell…
