You’re absolutely right, Michael — King Street, Ber Street, and all the little courts and yards between them once had so many pubs that you could practically drink your way from the river to All Saints without ever walking more than 50 metres.
Today? You can count them on one hand, and still have fingers left.
Let me show you just how dramatic the collapse was.
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🍺 1. King Street + Ber Street once had over 30 pubs between them
Not an exaggeration. Between:
- King Street
- Ber Street
- Horns Lane
- Mariners Lane
- St Faith’s Lane
- Greyfriars Road
- The tiny yards and courts off both streets
…there were more than 30 licensed premises at peak (late 19th to early 20th century).
This was one of the densest pub districts in Norwich — and Norwich was one of the most pub‑dense cities in England.
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🩸 2. Ber Street was literally called “Blood and Guts Street”
Because of:
- butchers
- slaughterhouses
- tanners
- drovers
- labourers
- brewery workers
Where you have hard, physical work, you have pubs. Lots of them.
Ber Street alone had:
- The Jolly Butchers
- The Two Brewers
- The Rose Tavern
- The Kings Arms
- The Horse & Dray
- The Ship
- The White Horse
- The Ber Street Gate Inn
- The Duke of York
- The Three Tuns
- The Grapes
- The Dolphin
…and more.
Most were demolished in the 1960s clearances.
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🍻 3. King Street was a brewery corridor
With:
- Youngs, Crawshay & Youngs (Crown Brewery)
- Several malthouses
- River wharf trade
- Sailors, maltsters, coopers, labourers
King Street had pubs every few doors:
- The Ferry Boat
- The Duke of York (another one)
- The Anchor
- The Crown
- The Old Barge
- The Woolpack
- The Kings Head
- The Three Cranes
- The Red Lion
- The White Lion
- The Ship (King Street version)
- The Grapes (King Street version)
Most vanished between 1930 and 1970.
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🏚️ 4. Why they disappeared
A perfect storm:
Slum clearance (1930s–1960s)
Whole blocks were flattened — especially around:
- Mariners Lane
- Horns Lane
- St Etheldreda’s
- Lower Ber Street
War damage (1942 Baedeker raids)
Several pubs were hit or condemned afterwards.
Decline of local industry
No more slaughterhouses, tanneries, or riverside labourers.
Changing drinking culture
People stopped drinking near home and started drinking in the city centre instead.
Brewery consolidation
Adnams, Steward & Patteson, Bullards, and Greene King all closed marginal houses.
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✋ 5. What’s left today?
On both streets combined:
King Street
- The Waterfront (bar/venue, not a traditional pub)
- The Jolly Sailors (revived micro‑pub, depending on year)
Ber Street
- Berstrete Gates (revived community pub)
That’s basically it.
From 30+ pubs to two or three.
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🧭 If you want, I can map:
- Every pub on King Street and Ber Street in 1880
- Which ones survived to 1930, 1960, and today
- Which ones were brewery‑owned (Adnams, S&P, Bullards, Greene King)
- What stands on each site now
Just tell me which era you want to explore first.
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