Jumping ahead a bit….. I’ll go back to carry on the story later but it is 35 years Sunday 9th August 2020 that we launched The Ribs of Beef…. so I’d record how we came to have it!
We were living over the bridge running the Mischief Tavern & had always loved the building of 24 Wensum street. All the while we had been living at the Mischief we had known it as The Antique Shop run by Mr & Mrs Fairman. The couple were retiring and sold to Spectrum Lighting.. However the building came up for sale again quite quickly. I was extremely interested and persuaded Roger to take a viewing. Difficult to find time as a Roger was chairman of the local LVA and heavily involved in the British Institute of Innkeeping as well as running the Mischief and George & Dragon in Haymarket, We were really impressed with the condition of the property and immediate started talking about what we could do with it. Knowing that new liquor licenses were not heard of and change of use would be pretty near enough impossible we still looked at purchasing it. We had money from the recent sale of our house and a little cash from the Adam & Eve which we had just relinquished. ( 1981) The Fairman’s had kept the property in tip top condition and the flat had been refurbished to a high standard. What had we to loose! Tired of spending a fortune on the Mischief which belonged to Norwich Brewery, with ever increasing rents – as soon as we increased trade up went the rent. We were tied to everything we bought liquor wise too at inflated prices. We talked to the planners about opening a public boat club and moorings and doing up the riverside to attract tourists and boaters into the city centre. The council were just not interested and laughed at the idea. A good friend Phil Tolly suggested Norwich needed a another real ale Freehouse as the only others at that time were the Ten Bells in St Benedicts and Colin & Marjorie Keatley ( later Fat Cat fame) at the White Lion in Oak Street. Meanwhile we took the gamble and purchased the property with a small mortgage – after all it would make three lovely city centre apartments if all else failed, and it was a shop on the ground floor. We let the shop to a friend of mine from art school who did her own costume design, this helped as a little rent came in. Roger’s brother Andrew an architect was working abroad and recommended his brother in law Jim Bond to do the plans and change of use. Our solicitor Sandy Munro at Overbury Stewart & Eaton introduced us to the man who would change our lives his colleague Alan Keford who he thought would be the man for such a task. We met with Alan and told him our plans to open a Freehouse. He laughed for two seconds then said. “Right this is what we do! “ To save you my fees if you can do some research yourself this will reduce them enormously. Roger was set his homework. He must research how many pubs had been closed in the city as far back as records were held! He wanted Roger to mark these in red stickers on an ordnance survey map and mark all the ones remaining open with a green sticker. The closed ones would stand out more in red he explained. He wanted dates they closed and any other records Roger could find. We needed to prove a need for a new licence. Bear in mind the early 80’s computers were very basic and certainly no Google! We had by this time moved into the property and hired a full time manager at the Mischief as we were also running the George and Dragon on Haymarket( now McDonalds). Our lounge/sitting room/dining room come main living room was to become a research center, office, full of files, boxes of data collected by Roger from the library and various other places. Alan asked me to do a mock up of the menu I intended to use, to ask local brewers Ray Ashworth at Woodfordes brewery and Ted Willams at Reedham brewery the only two breweries in Norfolk at the time to give us letters stating they needed supporting. We needed letters from friends and colleagues stating they wanted new pub life blood and ale choices. Life became centred around the rush to get a license and change of use from shop to public house. The Ribs had been a popular public house previously but closed in the 50’s. Poor James & Joolia had to do school homework in the kitchen, fighting for space to work along side me trying to prepare meals & the pub accounts. The upside for the children was they had use of Riverside jetty to fish and launch their rowing boats from and became popular with school friends….. eventually after two long stressful years Alan Keford felt we had enough to take to the licensing bench. In those days it was a magistrates court application, the panel would also sit to issue extension Licenses, pub change overs, occasional licenses etc. The bench sat in the Old Guildhall. Now Norwich City Council issue licenses and of course we have extended hours. No closing dead on 11 pm or the local police entering the premises…..
I remember many sleepless nights worrying about it all, it seemed to go on endlessly but eventually we went to court. Armed with files and prepped on our statements, the three of us attended court at the Old Guildhall. For those who remember it, it was an imposing room and we seemed dwarfed by it. Not to mention the nerves. Alan Keford put the case for a new licence, praised us both as fit and proper persons with no criminal records or serious diseases. Roger and myself had to go in the witness box to answer any questions the members the bench enquired. Lunch was called and the magistrates went off to consider the case. It seemed like the longest hour of my life. When we returned there were more questions. Eventually the panel retire to mull over the application. They returned looking very stern and I remember thinking oh no now what. To our astonishment not only did they grant the licence but they congratulated us on our bold application and looked forward to inspecting the premises before we opened. We were jubilant and could not take it in. Alan invited us back to Overburys where the word had got round and the other partners were waiting to Pat Alan on the back. I can’t remember what his fee was but it was worth every penny. The Champagne flowed generously after all this was the first licence granted since the Second World War!
The following weeks were a blur, plans, hiring builders, seeking out breweries to use and loans to beg for….
We used a young builder called Peter Jones and his team. The work took eight months, during which time we were called to Norwich Brewery and scolded by Rodney Mann for Rogers words which had hit hard…. in court Roger mentioned that Watneys had done what Hitler couldn’t— Close the Norwich Brewery! It did not go down well and they took away our temporary lease on the George & Dragon Hayhill as punishment….. We got the last laugh though as less than a year later we were asked to take it on again as they couldn’t find a tenant who could cope with it. It was a very busy sometimes over excitable market traders pub, best way to discribe without offending, but we had doormen most Saturdays…….
Our dear old friend Norwich Historian Geoffrey Kelly composed a brief history of the Ribs for us to display on the wall but a more details one is available which I will add later. ( when I’ve gained his permission)
We decided we would open on my birthday 9th August 1985. Make it a double celebration, but before we opened we had the licensing bench to tea! Naturally I got out my best china for them. I planned the day meticulously, designing invites and posting them through doors of professionals in the area, friends relatives all the people that had supported us over the years plus the people who supported our application. We booked the Town Cryer, Major Jones from the Army Recruiting office provided a bugler from the Life Guards, we extended the jetty with a platform of scaffold poles, decking planks and dressed up with carpet. We booked two wherry’s the Hathor and the Albion for the day along with a few smaller boats and dingys. On the day we had Woodfordes deliver beer from the brewery by river. I prepared a banquet which we served in the Wherry room for all the guests. The pub was officially opened by Paul Howel MEP and Rev Jack Burton blessed the new pub and all who drank in her! One Wherry was moored opposite the Ribs & Rogers brother Andrew resplendent in white suit was in charge of seeing guests onto rowing boats and our son James rowed them across the river to the Wherry for tasters.
Many of our friends will remember the day as it turned into a rather jolly occasion with one or two people taking a swim before the day was out.
Rear of Ribs 1985. Now Roaches Court. The cars belong to builders working on the Crown Courts. Before Riverside Walk completed.
Liquid Tales 