CHRISTMAS SHOPPING IN NORWICH

November 2025. Norwich.

I’ve taken more rail journeys these last 3 years than I had in all the previous 57, and despite the overcrowding on the Sheffield to Manchester routes and the unpredictable late cancellations I’m glad to get away from the car. No, really.

But Monday nights trip south was a nightmare, an already delayed train just deciding to stop, dead, at Nottingham, presumably for a pint in the Olde Trip, a journey I’d have made myself but for erroneous messages promising imminent onward travel.

90 minutes on a desolate Nottingham station in arctic conditions. #NoFun

So a trip home to check on Dad that started just after a quarter to four ended just after last orders in Waterbeach. AND Chung Hwa was closed.

Tuesday wasn’t a great day either, but I did at least get to feed Dad a lunch that looked better than anything I was going to eat that day.

I’d reckoned without the restorative powers of Ely Station’s Locoespresso cheese and Branston pickle cobs,

Honestly, Black Country standard.

A second trip to Norwich in a week, and this time I was going to tick off the new GBG entry (only ONE, Norwich !).

But first, let’s appreciate the Premier Inn that Simon once slept in, as iconic as the Carlyle where Kennedy stayed, but 97% cheaper.

I’ve not always been kind to Norwich on these pages, so let’s celebrate the route through the historic centre,  the heartwarming graffiti,

the shopping centre converted to a castle,

the shopping centre art.

That shopping centre attracted folk from Cambridgeshire out long before the A11 was dualled and Cambridge got a Primark, and walking through the Royal Arcade to the market you can see the appeal to simple Fen folk.

OK, I’d never actually buy anything here,

but then I never buy anything.

Actually, I’ve finished my Christmas shopping, as with every year it was finished on 1 January. If you’d like me as a personal shopper please send £0 to the Blind Monkey.

How many pubs in Norwich haven’t I used ?

I think even the Garnet may have been in the Guide once.

“Quit the tourism guide and give us a pub”.

OK.

Unknown's avatar

Published by retiredmartin

Retired NHS, doing long walks around UK and the world to record the great bits. Focused on Good Beer Guide pubs and live music.

24 thoughts on “CHRISTMAS SHOPPING IN NORWICH”

  2. During all my visits to Norwich, albeit only passing through except for a night in 1994 and a weekend in 2013, I don’t think I’ve ever seen that Royal Arcade.
    Are “Qocal Ales” a Norfolk speciality ?

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  3. “and despite the overcrowding on the Sheffield to Manchester routes and the unpredictable late cancellations I’m glad to get away from the car. No, really.”

    I think I would agree… if we had a decent rail system over here.
    (mind you, over here, unless you live in the “Golden Horseshoe”**, it’s not economically viable)

    ** – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Horseshoe

    Seriously. When we moved from Ottawa, Ontario, to Edmonton, Alberta (about 3,500km) I thought we’d be close enough to visit Rose’s parents in Whitehorse, Yukon. I didn’t realise it was another 2,000km!

    “an already delayed train just deciding to stop, dead, at Nottingham, presumably for a pint in the Olde Trip”

    (slow golf clap)
    And, I’ve been to the Trip! (in 1981)

    “90 minutes on a desolate Nottingham station in arctic conditions. #NoFun”

    No Sheffield Tap type thingy there?

    “So a trip home to check on Dad that started just after a quarter to four ended just after last orders in Waterbeach. AND Chung Hwa was closed.”

    Bloody hell.

    “I’d reckoned without the restorative powers of Ely Station’s Locoespresso cheese and pickled cobs,”

    (looks down)
    Er, I’ll take your word for it.
    (are you sure you’re feeling well?)

    “A second trip to Norwich in a week, and this time I was going to tick off the new GBG entry (only ONE, Norwich !).”

    Stands to reason, dunnit? They barely do one of anything! According to a poem I read. It went on about how they don’t drink, they don’t drink, and something else.

    “as iconic as the Carlyle where Kennedy stayed, but 97% cheaper.”

    (looks down)
    I’d say it looks nice but… looks can be deceiving?

    “the heartwarming graffiti,”

    I never did understand that; unless they were quoting Bill and Ted’s Adventure?

    “the shopping centre converted to a castle,”

    (looks down)
    What the bloody hell?

    “OK, I’d never actually buy anything here,”

    Agreed. Even if I won the lottery.

    “but then I never buy anything.”

    A man after my own heart.
    (except beer)😎

    “If you’d like me as a personal shopper please send £0 to the Blind Monkey.”

    Hang on, my sarcasm detector just overloaded!

    “I think even the Garnet may have been in the Guide once.”

    (looks up)
    They ALL look like castles! Was it due to the bloody vikings?

    ““Quit the tourism guide and give us a pub”.”

    Add me to that request. 😊

    Cheers

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

      1. I live about halfway up Vancouver Island, in a town of about 40K called Campbell River. It’s far enough from the madding crowd without being too far!

        Vancouver Island is about 500km long (north to south) and about 100km at it’s widest (east to west). The population of the entire Island is near 900K, about half of which are scrunched up at the southern end near Victoria, the capital of the province of British Columbia.

        I can’t see the ocean or the mountains from my house, but I can walk 10 minutes to see the mountains (both those on the mainland as well as the Island). We have a great ski hill about 45 minute drive south of us, which usually gets the best snowfall in the country (about 432 inches on average each year). I can walk to the ocean in 20 minutes, but I think that’s cheating a bit. While it is the Pacific Ocean, it’s the fiddly bits near the mainland, not the great waves on the other side of the island (i.e. Tofino; people go stay there when storms arrive in the winter just to watch the waves). Campbell River faces the mainland, and our bit of the Pacific Ocean is the Inside Passage. All of the ferries, barges and the like transit by us going to and from northern BC (British Columbia) and Alaska.

        We drove through Campbell River back in 1993 and loved it then, but we still had years to go in the military. Once our kids were old enough (and the fact Rose and I had landed jobs up north where they would fly us in from wherever) we moved here in a heartbeat. My wife, Rose, was out here in February of 2007, visiting a flying buddy from the military (Rose was the personal cook for five years on the military VIP flights for MPs, heads of state and the like – when the Queen and Prince Philip visited Canada in the mid 90s, she was assigned to his plane; he and the Queen did not fly on the same plane for security reasons). Rose went walking on the beach in the morning picking up seashells, and skiing at Mount Washington in the afternoon. When she called me to tell me about it, the weather was -35C at home. By August of that year we’d moved! (and left the kids back in Edmonton to fend for themselves… with a bit of help).

        Ok, that’s enough rambling for now. 😎

        Cheers

        PS – While we are ‘America’s hat’, there are a few differences between us Canucks and the Yanks. 😉

        Liked by 2 people

      2. Better America’s hat than it’s shoe, I guess.

        You weren’t rambling, Russ. I really wanted to ask where you lived and what it was like but felt a bit embarrassed as you must have told me that stuff before and I had a vague idea you were on that west coast. Interesting to see what bars you’ve got in Campbell River. Prices in places like Beach Fire Brewing seem quite reasonable, unless like the Yanks you have to add on 10% tax and 25% tips !

        Like

      3. I stick to the West Coast in the UK too if I can, Russ.

        I mean, just compare Liverpool, Bristol, and Cardiff with Boston, Great Yarmouth, and…Clacton?

        Like

      5. Edinburgh is further west than Bristol.

        However they have Autovacs so you can keep that…

        …Newcastle is honorary West Coast on the other hand.

        Liked by 1 person

      6. “Prices in places like Beach Fire Brewing seem quite reasonable, unless like the Yanks you have to add on 10% tax and 25% tips !”

        The prices are ok, but yes, there’s a 15% liquor tax on top of that and one is expected to tip at least another 15%. 😏

        Liked by 1 person

  5. That arcade looks gorgeous, but like you I’m a zealous anti-capitalists and would take some persuading to feel the need to buy anything there.

    I think I offended a fellow RM blog commenter in the past by suggesting the Vale of Clwyd CAMRA branch are a bit snobby for not choosing any pubs from the “unimproved” towns of Denbigh and Ruthin for the good book. BUT, this has all changed.

    Last night, eager to watch Everton for the second time in a week (and in a season) I popped to the current nearest pub to my mum’s house in Denbigh, the Railway (it eventually will be Brookhouse Mill, but it’s reopening, by new owners Stange & Co Pub, a gastropub chain, has been delayed by otters breeding in pipes beneath it). As I ordered my pint and a packet of Heinz ketchup flavoured crisps I was taken aback by a poster proclaiming it’s in the new GBG. I don’t think I’ll ever be employed by Peter Mandelson’s consulting firm, but here’s my terrible attempt at lobbying tickers to visit.

    The Railway in Denbigh is a sprawling pub, very dark to lack if natural light, nothing special architecturally, but the young staff are very friendly and older punters are usually quite pissed soon after 5pm and banterful. The juke box selections are eclectic. It’s hardly a must-visit-before-you-die pub, but it’s somehow got into the guide. They normally adhere to the famous ‘one cask is plenty’ doctrine, and there’s always a very chewy Old Speckled Hen on, and tonight, cruelly, there’s also a turned round GK IPA pump clip. As I left the pub at 8pm on a Saturday night, there were around eight punters left in the pub. can’t imagine there’s going to be a rush at the pub later on, so I dont quite understand how this pub survives economically, but thankfully it does.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

Leave a comment