Home > Norfolk > Great Yarmouth > Crystal Inn Crystal Inn
Date of photo: 2012	Picture source: Michael Croxford
The Crystal Inn was situated at 1 Northgate Street. This pub closed c2010.
I first went to the Crystal in the mid 60's. It was Dad's (Fred Smith) local. The pub had a main bar on the Northgate side (the right hand side as you look at it) and a smaller snug to the west (left). I had probably been going to that pub for 20 years before I ever went in the other bar. Dad would go in the snug. It is actually where the chip shop is now (give or take because it has a different frontage). As a 13 year old in the mid 60's I used to have to sit outside while Mum and Dad were in the pub. I had a bottle of Vimto and a bag of Nibbits. I would wait for what seemed like hours out there on the pavement. Then came the glorious moment when I became 14 and was allowed in the pub. Warmth at last. They were a close community in that bar. Everybody knew everybody else. I remember now there was Harry and Ted. Where you saw Harry you knew Ted was close by. Billy and Erny. Two blokes that worked on British Railways. Ron the Rail and Tony the Train. Big Ivon. Many more I can't remember. However there were three magistrates in there and when I applied for my first job as a trainee Weights and Measures Inspector in 1970 all of them gave glowing references. I put it down to them that I got the job which I stayed in for the rest of my working life. All presided over by Dick and Nancy Kelf. (I did not know it at the time but my future mother-in-law was a Kelf). Dutch name apparently. Not surprisingly common around here being as Yarmouth is closer to Amsterdam than it is London. They had an unusual tradition. When one of them came into the pub he bought himself a pint and everybody else in the snug a half. It's where I learnt how to pour a half into a pint pot without spillage. Dad used to boast that he could go in there and not put his hand in his pocket. But then they knew him. Dad was never the last to the bar. Dad only went there because the pub sold what were later to be called "Real Ales" Worthington E or Bass. They seemed to alternate. We reckoned they were the same beer with different labels. But Dad swore that "E" gave him wind. The gents toilet was a point at the wall behind that black door on the left that is seen behind the yellow traffic bollard. The ladies was off the left back of the Snug. When he left Dick, the landlord, gave me the Worthington glass and slate sign that was on the front of the building. It is on my shed still. Sadly damaged when some youths got into my garden and tried to jemmy it off . Later in the 90's the two bars were knocked into one with a couple of steps between the two sections.
Patrick Smith (December 2024)
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Other Photos
Picture source: Patrick Smith