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In 1842 :-
HOTELS, POSTING HOUSES, AND COMMERCIAL INNS.
The principal houses in Norwich for the accommodation of private families and commercial men are, the Norfolk Hotel, in St. Giles Broad Street; the Royal Hotel, Market place; the Rampant Horse Inn, St. Stephen's ; the Swan Hotel, St Peter's ; the Bowling Green Tavern, Chapel-field ; the Castle Inn, Castle Hill ; Maids Head Inn, St. Simon and Jude ; and the Bell Inn, Orford Hill. Besides these are many extremely well conducted houses in all parts of the city, suited to the accommodation of the public in general.

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1848
A letter to the Norfolk Chronicle asked ` if the custom, peculiar to Norwich? of emptying privies into the street, where their contents remain for hours, until collected in farmer's waggons; where their effluvia remains for days until dried out by the winds and dissipated it, could be abolished by the willingness of the Civic Authorities.
Today, Friday 23rd April 1848, nobody can pass from the town to the Close, nor from the precincts to Queen Street, along the flagstones, without feeling sick.
If the nightsoil of a dwelling-house must be deposited on the pavement before collection could it not be deodorised with Ellerman's liquid to purify the air?
Could not such Ellermantic liquid be provided at the trifling expense of the city? '
(See September 1864 below)


10th September 1851
40 inhabitants of the City complained to the Magistrates that with a little less than 70,000 inhabitants, there were `upwards of 600 public-houses' a much larger proportion than other towns. They added that `several' new licences had been awarded in the previous 12 months.
Signatures to the memorial included Mr. Coleman and Mr. Gurney.
Mr. Springfield, one of the Magistrates pointed out that there were only 550 public-houses, not 600 and he thought this `put it out of Court'.
Mr. Bignold, another of the Magistrates asked if it was true that the number of licenses had increased. The Court was advised that one licence had been granted for the Railway Refreshment Room, another for the Brewery of Mr. Phillips and a third to house owned by Messrs Steward & Patteson, in return for their surrender of the licence of another house, the Whalebone.
A third Magistrate, Mr. Palmer, thought that the gentlemen who had signed the memorial had no means of knowing the state of the City and ought not to have taken upon themselves to dictate to the Magistrates. They had either signed the memorial in ignorance or falsehood. Magistrate Captain Money seconded the motion on the grounds that the gentlemen were mistaken, but wished to convey no disrespect to them.
Magistrate Willett was however on the side of the gentlemen and said the memorial was worthy of attention, he further added that he would object to any future licence application.
His argument that the crime level was high because of the quantity of licensed houses, was refuted by Mr. Palmer, who argued that even if the number of houses was halved, there would still be means for those persons to get drunk who were so inclined.
There were 20 applications for licenses. There was insufficient time to discuss 2 of them, of the rest, 14 were refused, being new licences in the neighbourhood of existing public-houses. 4 were granted. (Two in Union Place, one in Rose Lane and one for the Surrey Tavern. The other three yet to be identified.)

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In 1852 it was reported to the Magistrates that there were 567 licensed houses in Norwich.
77 had changed tenant twice during the year, 28 had changed three times and 2 had four changes of tenant.

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At the Annual Licensing Meeting of 21st August 1855 it was reported that there were 595 licenses in force when the magistrates assembled.
4 were refused as the result of complaints and 8 lapsed since they had not traded within the previous twelve months.
16 new licenses were granted making the new total 599.
There were however 50 unlicensed houses in the city.
With 70,000 inhabitants that was one outlet for intoxicating liquors for every 43 adults.

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At the Annual Licensing Session held in Norwich, Monday 23rd August 1858 it was heard that 180 houses in the city held a full licence, but only sold beer.
This was claimed to be a method of gaining a licence to sell beer, with all the benefits of a public house over a beerhouse, at a much cheaper rate. Once a full licence had been gained the house could remain open all night so long as their houses were properly conducted, whereas beerhouses had to close at 11 p.m. By only taking out a licence to sell beer, the cost was about half that which a beerhouse keeper had to pay. It was considered by some of the magistrates that by not taking on the spirit licence, the revenue was being defrauded.
It was pointed out that regulations made it impossible to licence a beerhouse if the property had an annual value of less than £15. This restriction did not apply to a full licence. It was further observed that 100 of the houses had been public houses for 100 years and 50 of them fell foul of the required value.
There were then 617 public houses under magisterial licence and 124 of those were licensed to sell wine.
The motion to withdraw the 180 licences, and force beerhouse licenses to be applied for, was withdrawn following information that the court could not handle 180 appeals. (See Kings Lynn 1859)

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In September 1864 the City Surveyor reported that the river between New Mills Yard and Carrow Railway Bridge was in an abominable state. It was not the dye works, breweries, factories and works which emptied their refuse products into the river, but simply entirely to sewerage. One hundred sewers discharged into the river from the near three thousand water closets installed in the city. It was recommended that two intercepting sewers be created to divert the sewerage to the marshes in proper depositing tanks.
The citizens of Norwich having been put to the vast expense of draining the city and carrying the sewerage to the river, had to bear another serious infliction, in order to take out, or keep out from the river, the filth that the sanitary men had commanded then to send hither............

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It was reported March 1882 that Norwich had 26 common brewers, 7 victuallers, 5 in-door beerhouse keepers and 1 out-door beerhouse keeper, a total of 39 persons all licensed to sell beer. A further 11,539 persons were licensed as brewers, not allowed to sell.

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A report published 17th May 1890 claimed that Norwich had the almost greatest number of fully licensed public houses (per head of population) in the Kingdom, beaten only by Liverpool.
The direction in Norwich was to gradually torture out of existence the number of houses by heavy taxation and a diminishing trade.