Norwich – St. Andrew’s Brewhouse (Two Julians)

Located on St. George’s Street, this is the exterior of St. Andrew’s Brewhouse which opened as the Festival House in 1899 when it was a Bullards pub (George Plunkett has a photo which he took in 1936 of the exterior). It was briefly known as the Grocer’s Ghost in 1992, then briefly as Franco’s the following year, before reverting to its original name. In 2001, it was reopened as the Irish bar Delaney’s after a substantial renovation, before being renovated once again and opening under its current name in 2015.

John Hostler, a local labourer of no fixed residence, was intoxicated inside the pub and had his drink removed from him in 1908, so he threatened to put in the windows. He managed to do this, causing nearly £5 damage to the large plate glass window at the pub. In his defence to the court, he said that he fell and “my knee accidentally went through the glass”, but unsurprisingly this wasn’t believed and he was sentenced to six weeks hard labour. Perhaps as an attempt to get some of their money back, the next year they were flogging tickets to see the King go by, offering “splendid uninterrupted view of the procession, with tickets from 2s 6d”.

It was reported in the local press on 22 May 1909 that the new landlord of just two weeks, Joseph Samuel Paston, had been found dead in the pub. I’ll repost the entire article as it’s quite intriguing:

“The Norwich City Coroner (Mr. R. W. Ladell) conducted an inquiry on Monday morning into the sad circumstances attending the death of Joseph Samuel Paston, aged 55, landlord of the Festival House public-house, St. Andrew’s, who was found dead in bed at 10.30 last Saturday morning, having evidently died from gas poisoning. Mr. P. L’Estrange was present, representing Messrs. Bullard, Ltd.—The widow, Alice Mary Paston, who is living at 43, Gertrude Road., said her husband was a retired Sergt. Major of the 3rd Dragoon Guards, and until quite recently was landlord of the Golden Star public-house, Duke-st. During the past two years his health had not been very satisfactory, and on several occasions he had received medical treatment. They had only lived at Gertrude-rd. a fortnight, during which time he applied for an appointment as caretaker, but he was unsuccessful, and in consequence he had taken over the licence of the Festival House.

As her husband had been in the Festival House only a fortnight, their furniture had not yet been removed from Gertrude Road. The deceased had slept at the house, and witness and her little boy had slept at Gertrude Road., witness sending her husband’s meals down to him. On Friday afternoon last the deceased became somewhat queer, and he went to bed unusually early. On Saturday morning witness carried on the business of the house, and about half-past ten, thinking her husband had had a long rest, she went to his room to tell him to get up. On going into the room she found it full of gas fumes. She immediately opened a window, and on going to the bed found her husband quite dead. He had apparently passed away in his sleep. Witness was of opinion that in turning off the gas, which was immediately above the bed, he accidentally turned it on again. Her husband had been extremely happy since he had been in that house.— A son, Wm. Thomas Paston aged 12, said he last saw his father alive on Friday afternoon, when he was very queer. He corroborated the other facts of his mother’s evidence.—Detective-Sergt. Goldsmith spoke to examining the premises on Saturday evening. He thought the gas was turned on in an accidental way as the deceased was taking his arm from the burner.—A verdict of “Accidental Death” by suffocation was returned, the jury expressing their deep sorrow with Mrs. Paston in her bereavement.—Mr. L’Estrange said the deceased was a most trustworthy man.”

The interior of the pub and it’s all rather large in size, with a lower seated area which has a restaurant and numerous floors above which are usually reserved for private parties. They have also been used as a nightclub in the past and it has gone under numerous incarnations, including as Sams Rock Nite Club. I think that sounds just a little raucous for me. It was also named Samantha’s, which I assume is the same Sam, claiming to be the only rock club in Norfolk with its resident DJ, Gary Lee. When I get my little group about pub history going, I suspect that there will be a lot of memories from people about this pub and club.

The beer selection is mostly, but not entirely, from their own brewery set-up. I think the server was new, but he was friendly enough, with the pub feeling generally all rather clean and tidy.

The beer I went for was half a pint of the Anglo Saxon Amber from St. Andrew’s Brewhouse. Its flavour seemed to be playing a rather successful game of hide-and-seek if I’m being entirely honest, and it’s hard not to be as I merrily score every beer I have on Untappd. A thin and quite watery brew which was rather sub-optimal, it had the charming simplicity of something your mate might proudly offer from his garden shed brewery – you praise the effort, admire the bottle and hope he doesn’t notice you didn’t quite finish it. Julian had the Oaks from Barsham Brewery and was more pleased, noting it was a nice, standard bitter. The prices are slightly higher than average for beer, but not by much, so it’s all relatively affordable.

Flights are available….. I’ve had numerous beers from the brewery and I’ll just limit myself to saying that I haven’t ever been surprised or delighted. Well, I’ve been surprised, but not in the positive sense, as I had a Tombland Porter in December 2021 and it was hard to even get through it and I had the Grocer’s Ghost Pale Ale on the same night and discovered that it was even worse. However, others might get on better with beers from the brewery, each to their own.

I mainly remember this as Delaney’s, a vibrant and quite loud Irish bar, which Julian reminded me used to have elevated wooden seating by the window which allowed for watching over the bar. Julian also reminded me of how he once helpfully used to sit watching the bar for trouble-makers many years ago, he’s always offered that helpful service to landlords and landladies. Back to the pub, I’ve rated the food here higher than the drink over the years, but the service has always been polite and helpful. It’s located opposite where Norwich Beer Festival is held every October (other than last year when the Halls were out of commission, hopefully not something which will happen again this year) and there’s external seating which is agreeable for people watching. It’s a popular venue and so it’s clearly doing quite a lot right, so that’s all rather lovely.