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Picture source: Sebastian Ballard

The Ferry Boat was situated at 191 King Street. This grade-II listed pub closed in 2006 and has now been converted into flats.

From The Good Pub Guide 1983:

Coming in off the street and past the handsome carving of the timbered facade, you find what seems at first to be a straightforward pub, with beams, comfortable chairs, a grandfather clock and a big hearth. Penetrating further, you find a Perspex-roofed sloping concrete passageway, wide enough for settles and barrel tables (with tablecloths). This opens up onto a long room with pews and a juke box, and also leads into a great barn of a place, on several levels, mostly either bare boards or flagstones, with some of the high rafters draped with harness, and, under these, pews built into booths, with heavy settles and cafe style chairs, and on the walls a few stuffed birds. It sounds very much a young people's pub, and of course it is popular with them; but it's popular with many older people too, and the separate areas help to make a good mix. There's a small garden outside, with tables under a massive plane tree by the side of the Rive Yare - in summer barbecues are held here on Thursday to Sunday evenings. Well-kept Greene King IPA and Abbot and Wethered on handpump; two space games.

From Wikipedia:

The history of the Ferry Boat has been traced as far back as 1822, when it is thought to have been called the Horse Packet. It was known as the Steam Barge by 1830, and in 1867 its name was changed to the Steam Packet. It was first known as the Ferry Boat in 1925. In the mid 1970s a second bar was opened in a converted boat shed at the rear of the pub. It was here that the pub began putting on live music. The Ferry Boat was originally a venue for cover bands, but in the late 1990s local promoters began booking their own nights at the venue to put on local originals bands, and touring bands from all over the world. Over the next few years the Ferry Boat became established as one of the most important venues for local bands, catering for all types of alternative music, with a leaning towards punk rock, ska punk, metal, hardcore and Post-rock. In 2005 a protest was held after the Ferry Boat faced losing its public entertainment licence due to noise complaints from residents of a newly built block of flats nearby. The protest was a success, and the Ferry Boat's licence was renewed. However the Ferry Boat was forced to close a year later in 2006 due to continued noise complaints and financial difficulty. The final gig was an all-day-long event featuring local bands with Norwich based five-piece Dragline closing the night to a sweaty room packed to full capacity. The Ferry Boat Inn is currently closed. In January 2010, the site was sold to the Borthwick family, who received planning permission to build Norwich Backpackers on the site.[2] The development would include a micro pub as part of the building, along with a cafe overlooking the river and a cycle and canoe storage barn. The site was put back on the market in November 2013, when the Borthwick family decided to continue concentrating on their developments on the North Norfolk Coast, namely Deepdale Backpackers & Camping, rather than developing in Norwich. The future for The Ferry Boat Inn will be decided over time when a new owner takes on the challenge. In June 2014, it was reported that the Ferry Boat Inn had been sold for "more than £500,000", and that it might be turned into a residential development. A representative for the estate agents that handled the sale stated that it would not be a backpackers' site and that the new owners would "probably be looking for other, denser uses for the site

Listed building details:

Public house. C17 with C19 and C20 alterations. Rendered and pantile roof. 3 storeys. 3 bays. Central door with C19 'Tudor' surround. Small canted oriel window on brackets above door at first floor. Casement windows through-out. Triple dormer gables.

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Name	Dates	Comments
Rob Marshall	1991-96	Had my wedding reception in the back bar, great days and a fine pub with great beers.
Lost Days	1982	A great place in the early 80's. At the back they had a 'fag-ash Lil' type tickling the ivories on some nights. Opposite the pub was Argyle St, a street of squats, the local for many of the residents. One was an old guy called Ted, think he lived on the street. He was a rag and bone man and you would see him pushing a cart around and down the pub spending his hard-earned money. It had character and characters !

Other Photos
Date of photo: 2018	© Copyright Evelyn Simak and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence