NORWICH - c/d s&d, etc.

JtN
PF
Me
j e r e m y
?
?
?

I am very touched that JtN and I are considered good company with which, or with whom, to share a list.

It's true about the pop scene, but I wouldn't have called it noise/avant/weirdo in my day.

Perhaps I escaped just in time.

The city was magnificent, c.10-15 years ago - though 10 years ago it had, I guess, already begun a certain transition into homogeneous-millennium-town, Multiplex etc, which I'm afraid in this particular case I did and do not welcome. But the city has enough character and texture to survive all that, I would think.

Partridge, while priceless, has always seemed to me unrepresentative of Norwich - as the rest of this thread may suggest.

Carrow Road, btw: among other visits (Bayern Munich, Oct 1993) I remember being there on the last day of the ... 1993-4 season? - when visitors Oldham went down, or stayed up, or... whatever.

Memorable, as you can see.

And yes, ALAN PARTRIDGE!

Actually PF, Ned seemed to know more about this than I do! But I do believe there is a strain of experimentalism and "outsider art" that dates back to the 1970s, probably connected with the university?

It is true about the homogenisation. I miss double bills at Cinema City!

Bayern Munich, Oct 1993

Also, this is very impressive, obv. I think the best I managed was a plucky win over Sheffield!

The university built a number of horrible new buildings just after I left (2000), but I am quite fond of the university's architectural "style". I also miss the lake a lot.

xpost!I had beer with a Norwichian last night! In Oakland though.
Wow! The East Anglian/Bay Area connection strengthens by the day!

I can't help it if you're a philistine. Oh wait.

In that I know something about whatever is in Norwich, I know about Burning Shed, which as a label maintains connections via co-owners Tim Bowness and Peter Chilvers not merely to the extended No-Man/Porcupine Tree collective but a variety of other Norwich-based or connected art/prog fiends. Nearly all of whom are pretty damned great, but I would defer to the good Mr. Pashmina about all this, should he choose to comment.

;p

footy: Bayern as good as I get. But I ought to compile, one day, a list of all the games I saw at Carrow Road, which I loved. The post-match city, pubs, chips, pink'un even, were very romantic, to me.

In general I like UEA's architecture: the green space helps it.

For fun? Let me see:

1. Talk about big issues - philosophy, politics, pop, etc

2. drink - favourite pubs inc. The Murderers', The Fruiterers', the Adam & Eve, the Wherry, the UEA bars themselves, the Reindeer, others I don't have time to list right now

3. take in the profound romance of the city with its old walls, stony streets, Body Shop and record stalls

4. study, with books and things

I do remember a wine bar where they put people in a barber's chair and...well, never mind.

All city centres should be pedestrianised, and thus Norwich outs itself as a "sleeper" progressive city, once again.

Burma as in Myanmar

It seemed quite nice.

A jaunty Dr Robert comeback single came on the radio on our way home.

It was found to be the most racist town in Britain.

In the 80's their music policy was 'play Chris de Bugh lady in red', so people can slow dance, then play the Cure 'love cats', indie and goth kids do shoe dance, then play the Cult 'Sanctuary', indie and goth kids do windmill dance, then play jive bunnygirls people do the twist and fall over their handbags. Different tribes of kids on the floor, off again, on the floor, off agin, every 3 minutes.

Also Hys Nite Spot in Tombland was a laugh; light up dance floor and you could pull US servicemen on leave from the air base and they would buy me and my 15 year old friends whisky/vodka and cokes every half hour until we were either sick, or we snogged them.

I know all of these places! The library wasn't there last time I was in Norwich though.

I miss the brisk air and the weird winter sunsets, the peace of the countryside. Perhaps I will just become a writer and move back there or soemthing.

Part of The Wicker Man was not shot in Norwich - there's no place for ritual culture with my people; we've never had that kind of community spirit.

The Norwich of today is a very different place to the one I grew up in, but only in that there are 5,000 shops for people to have to work in instead of 100. There really has been fuck all else to do there for a few years, which is why I left. It is a really nice place when you know all the really nice people there, as I used to. But it's a crap place to visit if you don't have any personal or nostalgic connections to it.

Word to the wise: Prince of Wales Road is where you kids will - guaranteed - get beaten up after closing time.

haha xpost

Things have got a bit hairier round that way recently, yes. Much as I'm wary of quoting spurious stats, someone told me it was listed as having the seventh highest post-closing time violent crime type of business going on out of any street in the UK, which I can kind of believe.

I've never been shoulder-charged, though - that's the kind of shit goes down in Diss.

New issue of ZIGGURAT reports on the new UEA logo.

Here is the official statement describing it.

"We have retained the UEA initials but in a contemporary style that reflects the interdisciplinarity which underpins our approach to research and teaching and the spark of creativity characterising much of what is best about the University. [...] The logo also features the full name of the University as an integral part of its design to make sure that our core activity is immediately apparent to people seeing it at events in the UK and around the world".

-- Alan Preece, Director of Marketing and Communications

Also:

"The new identity follows initial work on internal and external perceptions of the University, including discussions with a number of alumni, in late 2006. This was aligned with consultation on the Corporate Plan 2008-2013 during 2007. A project was then undertaken to consider the way in which the corporate identity communicated core messages, values and aspirations. Alternative identities were considered and after testing options with key audiences in the UK and overseas a decision was taken to move to a new identity from February 2008."

It has taken me a while to type this out, so I hope all you alumni are reading it.

I am, thanks!

http://www.livcomawards.com/media-2007/results.htm

Missing those windy dark nights on the plains

On the plains!

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Oh, and the LCR. Looking as grim and grey as I remember...

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i love these, pinefox

Daytripping in Norwich next month on the way from Edinburgh via Alton Towers on the way to Stalham to see family. Much worth seeing? Last time I was in Norwich I went to Maplin, a book shop were my bro bought a copy of The Wire, and sat in a pub for a couple of hours. Couldn't even tell you which one.

Thank you Remy Bean, I appreciate that.

One day in Norwich = lots to see, if you want it.

Cathedral + Castle are top of the proper sights charts.

Other parts of the city would mean more to individuals like me who have a Norwich past, might not to others. Castle Meadow's bus stops for instance. But still, many could be interested in

Carrow Road
The riverside walk to and from it, if still accessible
Adam & Eve pub, near river and cathedral I think
Catholic Cathedral immense at end of Earlham Road, by footbridge over rushing cars of Grapes Hill
Chapelfield Gardens, Eaton Park are nice enough if you want a park
UEA is a significant site of architecture
Sainsbury Centre at UEA ditto and has art and exhibitions
Norwich Market is venerable and local
North of the market, nowadays called 'the lanes': trad medieval streets of interesting shops
including Head in the Clouds, UK's first head shop (whatever that is really)

Pubs: tremendous. I was amazed at the range and quality of real ales here, vs any town I can think of.

Bookshops: Ellis (old and great), Bookhive (new and acclaimed).

Overall I would say that if you have any inclination at all to find a medieval English town interesting and attractive, you will like this one. If you're just not into such places at all, you might not.

(I could recommend 5 or 10 pubs in particular)

The Alexandra
Eaton Cottage
The Plough
The Reindeer
Golden Star
Wildman

10 Bells (though beer less great)
Bike Shop + Workshop are recommended, haven't been in
+ Adam & Eve

The Plough is a key place to look out for if in city centre - new, make their own good beer I think, with big garden

Alexandra is among the pick further out West

Cool cool. I'll definitely wander by Carrow road, but hopefully we'll have made automatic promotion by then, and not stuck in the playoffs (though, potential to pay crazy amounts of money for a playoff ticket...). Expect it will mostly be a day of wandering about the town - of all my childhood trips to Norwich I don't remember ever going to the cathedral - then pubs.

You're a Norwich City supporter?

Yip, born in Norwich, but never really lived there. So they're my team :)

wildman is great, but i also used to love murderer's. it's nearly as old as adam and eve, and a bit more convenient.

I think it's the first Norwich pub I ever drank in - so it has a bit of a special place for me; and I like its little hillside location. Went back there one Saturday in 2002 as I recall.

Look it up online though, and you'll see it's become a bit confusing - now has two names, and apparently a load of murderer gear, which is probably not necessary.

Think I only ever went in the Wildman once - and in those days it was two words, Wild Man!

Actually barely ever been in Adam & Eve.

Tombland pubs OK if not too crowded? Mischief, Edith Cavell I think, Lawyer used to be there, Ribs of Beef. One or two fond memories of those; but might just be average pubs now.

The fact that you can have this discussion about Norwich, though, tells you a lot about the place.

Where else compares, for quantity, number, quality, character of pubs / bars?

OK, London - or parts of it, the City for instance.
New York, ditto: maybe LE Side, Brooklyn.
Glasgow, the West End, possibly
and of course, Dublin is a special case.
And Paris is good for brasseries, wine bars.

But those are all bigger cities. Compare Norwich to Northampton, Exeter, even Manchester, Newcastle, Edinburgh - I reckon it would come out well ahead on pubs for its size (with quality of beer and character of pub in mind, again).

Cambridge and Oxford seem like decent alternative contenders.

So I think I'm coming here in April, which I seem to find funny since 99% of everything I know about Norwich is from Alan Partridge.

First question, has the city centre actually been pedestrianised?