At Norwich City, you may get Premier League football, but on Carrow Road you do not imagine yourself at a million-dollar club for a second. A visit to Norwich City is for the football fan who is more into the little clubs than the stars, and the Canaries have surprisingly vocal fans.
'Too big for the Championship, too small for the Premier League ' is an expression that currently applies to Norwich City. They the Championship in 2019 by force majeure, then relegated from the Premier League without a chance to become the undisputed champion again the following year. A true yo-yo club.
Carrow Road is one of the smallest stadiums in the Premier League, but we like that. At the time of construction in 1935, the locals even called it the 'eighth wonder of the world' due to the construction that took only 82(!) days. Of course things have changed since then, but Carrow Road has always retained its charm: Not a hypermodern arena but a real football stadium, with four different stands, the audience on top of the field and the green-yellow club colours in abundance.
By far the best match you can visit on Carrow Road is the derby against Norwich's arch-rival Ipswich Town. It's the East Anglia derby, a battle between the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, jokingly referred to as 'The Old Farm' given the rural character of both teams. But as friendly as it can be on Carrow Road, against Ipswich Town it turns to war. Unfortunately, the derby is not on the programme for the time being, because where Norwich City are doing well in the top tier, Ipswich Town has dropped to League One.
At the time of Norwich City's founding in 1902, the club did not yet have its own stadium. It did have its own pitch, where it no longer played after 1908, but that pitch still exists today. The field is on Newmarket Road, at the intersection with Daniels Road. Competition football is no longer played, but there is still decent sport: it serves as the sports field of a nearby school.
After disagreements over the lease of the pitch on Newmarket Road, Norwich City moved to a very special place. The new stadium on Rosary Road, The Nest, was in fact a disused limestone quarry. As a result, it sat in a kind of pit, with bleachers on one side and also a large, concrete wall, which on good days thousands of people stood on top. Not really safe, which was why in 1935, it was decided they would to move to a new stadium, which eventually became Carrow Road.
Although Norwich City has long since vacated, there are still some elements that are reminiscent of the football past of this place. There is a plaque on the side wall of number 57 on Rosary Road with the Norwich City logo, which tells the story of the club's former stadium. In the park next to the house is a tall sculpture with a ball at the top, a monument to the old stadium.
Still, there are still some old elements of The Nest to see: If you can't go any further at the far back of Bertram Way, you will come across some overgrown terracing in the corner at number 59 and a bit further on a part of the old concrete wall.
There are also many links to the football club in the centre of Norwich. Traditionally after a promotion, the players appear at the brutalist town hall on St. Peters Street on the balcony to celebrate with the fans.
The lion from the club logo and the city coat of arms can also be seen in front of the town hall: It is a royal lion, which can also be seen, for example, in the logo of the FA, with the well-known 'Three Lions'.
The absolute centrepiece of the city is 11th century Norwich Castle, towering over the city. The castle is depicted alongside the canary and the lion in the Norwich City badge. Apart from the beautiful castle, the view is also more than worth the climb, you have a panoramic view of Norwich and you can see Carrow Road clearly.
Just around the corner from Norwich Castle is White Lion Street, and this is where it all started for Norwich City. At number 20, which now houses a stately men's fashion store, used to be the Criterion Café. Norwich City Football Club was founded here on 17 June 1902 and thus the cradle of the club. A plaque in the alley (York Alley) on the side wall of the building serves as a testament to the history of this place.
There are several good pubs where you can have a good pint around Norwich City matches. One of the most well known is the Compleat Angler, diagonally opposite the train station on Prince of Wales Road. Here you can sit on the terrace by the water and it is bursting with the Canaries on match days.
A hotel room with a good view? Say no more. At the corner of Carrow Road is a Holiday Inn hotel, several rooms of which have a view of the pitch. We do not really like it – as one goal is not visible – but in principle you would see Cristiano Ronaldo and Virgil van Dijk in the comfort of your hotel room.
Now that Norwich City is back in the Premier League, public interest has of course increased again, especially as the supporters were not welcome in the stadium for more than a year. Yet it is still easy to get tickets for matches against the lesser teams without a membership. You can buy the tickets through the official Norwich City club site
Norwich is not a very big city, so you can do everything easily on foot. Carrow Road - on the street of the same name - is less than ten minutes' walk from Norwich train station. From the city centre it is a fifteen minute walk to the stadium, just southeast.
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