Carrow Road

Home to Norwich City FC

Formed in 1902, Norwich City are an important part of Norwich even among non-football fans – a plucky symbol of the city that traditionally yo-yos between the Championship and Premier League without really being at home in either. Known as The Canaries, their distinctive yellow and green kit marks them out among other big city clubs, as does their ownership, which is famously headed by TV and celebrity chef Delia Smith and her husband Michael Wynn-Jones.

Delia is the best-known supporter of a club that inspires real devotion in its fans (also united in their rivalry with nearby Ipswich Town). Formed by a group of teachers at the Criterion Café on White Lion Street (currently occupied by Moss Bros), and originally known as ‘The Citizens’, the club song – ‘On the Ball City’ – is said to be the oldest football chant in the world. The club first played at a ground on Newmarket Road before moving to ‘The Nest’, a disused chalk pit near the station (next door to the Rosary Cemetery), then to the current ground, Carrow Road, in 1935.The stadium has since then been completely redeveloped, and although a bit of a hotchpotch of styles the Barclay Stand is still named after the local man who paid for the roof in 1937. Overall, the feel is – like the club itself – family orientated and inclusive.

Tours take in the dressing rooms – including the deliberately downbeat away dressing room and the far more impressive home dressing room, complete with inspirational slogans, squad names and numbers and the dreaded ice bath.The trophy cabinet naturally gets a look-in, complete with pennants from City’s famous 1993 European Cup run, while the directors’box gives a fabulous view over the 27,000-capacity stadium, including the notorious ‘Snake Pit’ in the corner and the pitch itself, the scene of Delia’s famously rousing ‘Let’s be having you’ speech in 2005.