retiredmartin

November 2023. Norwich.

A Sunday afternoon in Norwich ticking pubs is one of the joys of life. Add in a crisp Autumn (or is it Winter ? Never know) day and a route through pleasant suburbia and it’s hard to beat. Perhaps a Sunday afternoon in Maidenhead is the way to go next.

A mere six minutes wobble from the Garden House, past the obligatory lamp post art,

and the obligatory “porcelain owls in a backstreet window“,

brings you to the Warwick Arms.

Though Google Maps still shows it as the Mad Moose, which makes Google at least 7 years out of date, so beware relying on the internet, that’s all I’ll say about A.I.

I love suburban pubs like this, set in a little pocket park.

And so do De’ath Hospitality, who own both this and our next stop AND William and Florence.

You might think De’Ath Hospitality is an unfortunate name, but they’re actually named after Reading goalkeeping legend Steve Death (RIP), who kept a clean sheet at Carrow Road in 1975.

Talking of football, I enter the Warwick in the middle of a flurry of goals in the West Ham v Forest match.

“Yeeesssss. Come on you Iron !” the shout from the next room from fans who would go to the matches but it takes 3 hours to get to the West Ham Stadium and then 3 hours to get out of the ground afterwards.

Hammers fans tend to get out of East London as quickly as possible, heading for honeypot villages in Cambridge, St Albans and Colchester. But they are the best and loyalist of fans (along with Manchester City and St Mirren).

West Ham are, of course, a European trophy winning team again. For most of the ’80s and ’90s, when Norwich were a European force,

Canaries fans had an unhealthy obsession with Liverpool,

but now they’ve found their level as a second-tier side in a good pub city. They never could spell “Telly” in Norfolk.

The Warwick doesn’t look exciting, better on the outside,

but a second Mr Winters in a row is pretty good, cool and crisp (3+). You’re getting bored with me finding good beer, aren’t you ?

Let’s see if I can find something to grumble about, shall we…