The Duke of Wellington, Norwich

On a late night visit I found the pub to be well attended but managed to find a small table in a corner of the long roomed pub, there were plenty of beers on that I failed to note at this stage of the day but enjoyed my Wolf Lupus Lupus and quite enjoyed the pub.

The Duke of Wellington was another Norwich pub that I decided to give another try, having last been here over 10 years ago and rating it as decidedly average. However, I was really impressed this time around. There's a blackboard listing the full selection near the entrance and the bar area has now been split to create one point where you order and another where you collect your drinks. The barmaid was friendly and showed us the trapdoor which leads to an air raid shelter at the rear. Beyond that are the toilets and an outdoor area. 7 of the real ales were from Wolf - Edith Cavell, Moonlight, Golden Jackal, Battle of Britain, Lupus Lupus, Wolf Ale & Wolf In Sheep's Clothing. Oakham Bishop's Farewell is another regular ale. They also had Citra. 3 other guests were Dark Star Hophead, Nene Valley Manhattan Project & Three Blind Mice Milk Worm. In addition, there were 4 ciders - Broadoak Moonshine & Moonshine Rum & Raisin, Abrahall's Slack Alice & Colcombe House The Rhooberry. Possibly the best pub we visited in Norwich yesterday.

Another fine backstreet alehouse to the North of Norwich city centre, the Duke of Wellington is a smartly presented pub with one of the city’s widest ale ranges. You enter into a nicely appointed carpeted room with an L-shaped servery to the right. The bar has a dark wood counter and the bar back allows you a glimpse into the taproom behind. Walls are half panelled with a decent paint job above and there is a brick fireplace over to the right with a beer board above it and various pictures of the eponymous Iron Duke dotted around. A brick chimney breast in the centre of the room hints at a previous layout and has some interesting stained glass panels and brewery mirrors adorning it. A mix of pew, chair and low stool seating fills much of the space and at the right hand end of the bar there is a tiny room, presumably the former bottle and jug, called ‘Kay’s Snug’, with room for just one solitary table. The main room extends down the left hand side, passing a row of windows with books stacked up on their sills and a large wagon wheel used as a partitioning screen, before emerging into a split level space, slightly darker than the rest of the pub, but with plenty more seating options. An attractive, partly covered patio garden can be accessed from back here, where ample seating is available. Music played quietly throughout my stay and the place was pretty peaceful, with just a few old timers chatting away at the bar on my Saturday lunchtime visit. The beer range is pretty daunting for even the most seasoned drinker, with a range of ales that takes a fair bit of perusing before you feel ready to pick one. Here, the blackboard becomes an essential tool, as the handpulls only tell half the story – most beers are racked up in the taproom behind the bar. Options on this visit were Wolf Mad Wolf, Edith Cavell, Sly Wolf, Lupus Lupus, Golden Jackal and Sheep’s Clothing, Slater’s Queen Bee, Oakham JHB, Citra, Scarlet Macaw and Bishop’s Finger, Highland The Duke, Tirrel Old Faithful, City of Cambridge Parker’s Piece, Saltaire Cascadian Black, Herts Lord of the Glen, Coach House Gunpowder Mild, Cheddar Potholer and Bingham’s Brickwork Bitter. Three real ciders were also listed. The beers from Wolf Brewery were all on handpull, whilst the rest were served on gravity. I tried the Queen Bee which was excellent and went down very nicely. The pub also had a banner up for a beer festival which was due to start in the coming weeks, although most would consider their permanent range of up to 22 ales to be a festival in itself. This is a great pub for the beer drinker, offering such a diverse and extensive range of ale that you need hardly seek out any other venue to satisfy your tastes. The place is comfortable, the welcome was friendly and the locals seemed pretty entertaining. This is one of several outstanding pubs in this part of town and deserves more than the one-pint visit I afforded it, in order to fully appreciate all it has to offer.

Date of visit - April 2013 Outside the ring road in a residential area to the north of the City Centre is The Duke of Wellington, a prominent brick built street corner community local. It’s a former Lacons house Inside, we find a comfortable, traditional, low ceilinged carpeted pub with a number of adjoining areas served from a single, central three sided bar counter. There’s something of a slightly old fashioned and worn feel to the place. There’s a few Duke of Wellington photos, but no real attempt to create a theme and, on the whole, it’s a somewhat unremarkable interior. Although I did note a rather unappetising selection of rolls and pies on an old fashioned Perspex covered tray on the bar counter, you’re allowed to bring in your own takeaway food with plates and cutlery provided. Reflecting its community focus, Tuesday night is music night, featuring the Von Krapp Family Band ( I kid you not ) There’s a good selection of real ale here with a number of handpumps supplemented by beers on gravity, kept in an unusual glass fronted tap room behind the bar counter. On my recent April visit, there was a clear emphasis on beers from the Wolf Brewery which included, as special offer beer of the month, Tasmanian Wolf ( 5.2% ABV ) at £ 2.50p a pint. Other beers came from Oakham and Green Jack and also, notably, included London Pride and Sheps Spitfire. Unusually perhaps, for a side street pub out of the centre, there’s a good range of speciality bottled beers. The pub is a CAMRA Good Beer Guide regular and past local award winner. Like a number of Norwich’s GBG listed pubs, it’s outside the City Ring Road and you won’t therefore come across it by accident, but I’d be happy to make the effort and track it down again if the opportunity arose.