The Rosebery, Norwich

The Rosebury is a large Victorian backstreet pub with a row of picnic tables across the front. The entrance leads to a high ceilinged room with blue and white tiling on the floor that runs to the L-shaped bar counter. To the right of the entrance is a parquet flooring area with some rectangular and round four seater tables, and an understated fireplace in the right-hand wall. To the left is floorboarded with more of the same furniture as well as some smaller two seater tables that run from the windowed front down past the bar counter to the rear. Orange hue filament bulbs hang down from the ceiling, their weak light hardly reaching the blue painted walls. The six hand pumps on the bar were drawing Lacun’s Legacy, Redemption Brewing’s Big Chief, Green Jack Brewing’s Little Green Man 1, Shortts Farm Brewery’s The Cure, S&P Brewery’s Darkest Hour and Mr Winter’s Hapi. Premium and craft keg was also available from the friendly staff. There were only a couple of other customers when the seven or so of us entered so they were having quite a sedate afternoon. We soon ended that with talk of blocking toilets and natural selection, much to the annoyance of the nearby Karen who kept glaring at us with a face like a smacked arse. Having grown up in London I liked it in here because it reminded me of an old local where I used to go on a Saturday lunch to read the paper. However, there are far too many amazing pubs in this corner of Norwich to warrant revisiting this one.

Another of Norwich’s many backstreet pubs, situated in a pleasant backwater. The pub has had a substantial makeover, probably during Lockdown when the ‘Lord’ prefix was dropped and unlike any other Norwich pub visited, this looks to have been modelled on a typical Islington/Hackney hipsterfied place, with a smoky blue colour scheme and filament bulbs; you get the picture. A half of Lacon’s Legacy (£2.20) was decent enough. Not bad, but if I want to go to a typical London pub… I can remain in London.