Marlborough Arms, Norwich

Another Norwich pub which has somehow escaped me until now, the Good Beer Guide led me here on my recent visit. It's quite an imposing building on a corner plot within a residential area. However, it was very quiet on my Thursday evening visit with nobody in the front room and 4 or 5 customers in a rear room. The front room has the bar and a couple of TVs at either end. There is fairly limited seating, a games machine, a couple of vintage cigarette machines and a large metal advert for Bass Special Stout. Off the front room is a small side room with a bar billiards table and some traditional pub games. The rear room also has a TV, more machines, a dartboard and a pool table. Live sports are advertised and TVs were showing darts. Live music also takes place. 4 cask ales are served. These were Moon Gazer Keep Checking & Cheeky Jack, Tindall Galaxy Dream & All Day Devil Moon. Village Green Medium Soul was the cider offering. I believe they have more than the one real cider at other times. Keg beers from Greene King were Hazy Day & Level Head. Pies of the day and cobs were supposedly available. With a bit more atmosphere, this could easily be a 7/10. But it was a bit too quiet for my liking.

The Marlborough Arms is a decent sized back street pub with brewers tudor on the upper level. The pub has got two entrances i went in the corner entrance this takes you into a decent sized room that is bare boarded,there is a pool table to the right and the bar was to the left,the bar was unusuall has it was on two levels,the middle area is up one step and it is quite small this is where the front entrance takes you to,there is a larger room up one more step,this room runs from the front of the pub to the rear,i think this room used to be the lounge,there was a large Take Courage on the wall in the lounge. The main room had loads of old signs on the walls plus old fag machines,all of these looked originall but gave the pub a tatty look. There were three real ales on the bar i had a drink of Wolf Golden Jackal and this was a decent enough drink the other beers were Abbey Blackfriars and Youngs bitter. Pub visited 30/6/2012

Superb pub, how local pubs used to be, warm friendly amosphere and plenty of characters. Doesn't do food.