FROM MARBELLA TO THE NORFOLK BROADS

From my parents I headed east for a couple of days to complete Norfolk.

Now, some people will tell you that Norfolk is part of East Angular, but really it’s a different world.

And it’s actually quicker to get from Waterbeach to Guyana than Gunton, home of my next tick, a first newbie in more than two (2) weeks.

Gunton has a station, right next to the Suffield Arms, which is convenient as the road is closed due to it being inconvenient to close it that week.

The GBG reckons it’s in Thorpe Market (this year, watch it move to Southrepps in 2023). Work that one out.

I’ve marked two other GBG entries either side of the Suffield. They’re all called “odd name Arms“; I was TORMENTED by the the fear I’d go in the wrong Arms, particularly as they’re all the sort of rustic gastropub that exist entirely for holidaymakers from Overstrand.

This is the scenic view of the Guide newbie.

I adjusted my tie, wiped my feet, and prepared to be greeted with “Will you be dining with us today, Sir ?”.

Oh.

Where did this come from ? “Smells Like Teen Spirit” blasted out, youngsters ringed the bar, a middle-aged couple ordered paninis, dogs yapped, the clink of the yellow ball on the pool table drowned out Cobain.

It felt like the pub festival goers go in the night before Glastonbury (not that I’ll ever know, ugh).

I had a half of the Lacon’s Pale (the default beer in north Norfolk) and sat awkwardly at the end of one of the two long tables dominating the room.

But it was OK. The beer was a bit chilled (NBSS 3), but you so rarely get a pub full of youngsters drinking at 16:30 that I could only applaud it all.

Nirvana gave way to “Going Underground“, I headed to the loos to see if there was more to it than weird isolated boozer.

There was.

To the left, the smartest dining room you’ll ever see, and upstairs, a saloon bar with cocktails at Clapham Junction prices.

And the loos ?

Well, if you can steal a loo from London’s most famous wedge pub, why not ?

But as for the art in the Gents…

Well, I was shocked, I can tell you.

10 thoughts on “FROM MARBELLA TO THE NORFOLK BROADS

  1. Never been, but your photos remind me of Paradise by Way of Kensal Green and other ‘indie sleaze’ pubs of the 2000s. I wonder if its the project of an ex-Camdenite?

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  2. Pubs full of youngsters! Going Underground! What next? If the kids are united? My perfect cousin? Into the Valley?
    GBG picking out great pubs – it’ll never catch on you know

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  3. Stumbled upon this place by chance, just recommended by local friends as an OK place for us to eat.

    Your review is, I think, Exact, Martin.

    I did extend to two pints of Lacon’s Encore mind, which washed down the local crab and asparagus linguine a treat.

    I think that you might have given it 3.5?

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