Over the years I think it's fair to say I've had the odd drink or two in a fair old number of pubs, and this is the initial post in my new Pubs of Lay Clerk series where I'll try to list as many of them as I can remember, together with the occasional "review" or story connected to them. By nature it's going to be a work in progress for a long time and I'd guess it isn't ever going to be complete, since there's no possible way I'll remember them all, but I'll try to list at least all the ones I regularly drank in or indeed still drink in with various choirs etc. Feel free to leave comments with any opinions, additions, corrections or extra detail.
Don't forget that sometimes it's been a LONG time and a lot of water's been passed since I've been in some of these places so what I describe tends to relate to how I remember they were back in the day. All opinions expressed are my own so please feel free to try even the ones I warn against and see if you agree with me.
This is one of the oldest pubs in Norwich, is just outside the Cathedral walls and was supposedly used by the workmen during one of the phases of the building of the Cathedral (which would have been some time between 1121 - 1369 I guess). Although right next to a modern car park (not multi-storey thankfully) and across from the law court, the outside wall is covered in flowers and it looks as though it's in the middle of the countryside. It sells decent food, real ale, and bowls of very nice olives.
I was there was in 1994 when the Marian Consort sang for a week in the Cathedral, and briefly in 1999 with Glasgow University Chapel Choir on a tour of Norfolk.
At the end of the day this is a pretty boring city centre pub, but one of the good things about it is that it has huge floor to ceiling windows and it's right on the pavement of a really busy street so it's a good place to sit, drink, and people-watch.
It gets pretty busy with straight-after-work people (as opposed to the ones who are gay-while-at-work I suppose!). A bit expensive, but it's the city centre after all. I was first in here in November 2005 and the selection of beers was actually pretty good, including some Belgian fruit beers (like Kriek) and various decent lagers (Krusovice etc) all on draught. Since then I've been in often, and I can heartily recommend their food. There are nice comfy sofas upstairs, and a good'ish view out the windows down to the street below.
For a bonus point of historical interest, across from the side of All Bar One is St Mary's Lane which is so called because it's where St Mary's Episcopal Church used to be before the good Victorians decided it'd be a good idea to move to the growing west end of Glasgow. St Mary's church of course went on to become the Cathedral of the Diocese.
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