The Assembly House

The Assembly House Award-winning hotel and restaurant in the heart of Norwich. We put the extra in extraordinary, every single day 💖
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Home of iconic themed Afternoon Teas, decadent bedrooms, unforgettable weddings and glittering events. The Assembly House is a gorgeous Georgian gem perfectly located in the heart of Norwich. Designed by architect Thomas Ivory in 1754, the Grade-I listed House is famous for its historic elegance, glittering celebrations, beautiful bedrooms and legendary Afternoon Teas. "...The Assembly House, one

of the UK’s loveliest boutique hotels, offers a storming afternoon tea..." TV presenter and journalist Grace Dent, writing in The Guardian newspaper

We set out to create the kind of establishment we'd love to find in one of the UK's most beautiful cities, one where old-fashioned hospitality is valued, food is delicious and where beautiful surroundings can be found hidden around every corner. Our characterful bedrooms are like jewellery boxes, each one different, many filled with genuine antiques, some with gardens, some their own balconies, all boasting a generous sprinkle of glamour and magic. With a restaurant that opens daily for breakfast and Beforenoon Tea, lunch or one of our famous themed Afternoon Teas, menus are by director and renowned Norfolk chef Richard Hughes. The House hosts stunning weddings, impressive events, standout conferences and is the home of The Richard Hughes Cookery School, the inaugural winner of The British Cookery School of the Year. Come and immerse yourself in the world of The Assembly House: we can't wait for you to be our guests!

❤️🥰 WEDDING WEDNESDAY! We LOVE a wedding at The Assembly House! 🥰❤️Megan and Jordan's wedding last year was proof that s...
24/06/2026

❤️🥰 WEDDING WEDNESDAY! We LOVE a wedding at The Assembly House! 🥰❤️

Megan and Jordan's wedding last year was proof that sometimes the most beautiful celebrations are the ones filled with personal touches.

Their ceremony was in our Music Room, where family and friends gathered beneath the chandeliers to watch them become husband and wife. Looking down from the gallery, it was one of those scenes that reminds us just how magical a wedding ceremony can be. A room full of people who love you, all in one place, sharing a moment you'll remember forever.

Afterwards, celebrations moved into a truly stunning Noverre Ballroom. And when we say stunning, we mean STUNNING.

Soft drapes floated across the ceiling, fairy lights twinkled overhead, elegant banqueting tables stretched the length of the room and flowers filled every corner. Some were created by the wonderful Cel at Forever Green Flower Company, while others came from Meg's mum's own garden, making the whole room feel even more personal and special.

There were confetti-filled smiles outside the front door, photographs amongst the flowers in the Noverre Garden and a reception that looked as though it had stepped straight from the pages of a wedding magazine.

Amongst all the beauty, our favourite moments are always the simplest ones:

🏩✨ The look on the happy couple's faces as they walked back down the aisle together

🏩✨ Hand-picked flowers carrying a little piece of home into the day

🏩✨ That first glimpse of the transformed ballroom before guests arrived

🏩✨ The quiet smiles that say, "This is exactly how we hoped it would be"

A huge thank you to Megan and Jordan for sharing these beautiful photographs and for allowing us to be part of such a special day. We hope married life is treating you wonderfully and we're sending our warmest wishes your way ❤️

With thanks to their brilliant suppliers:

📸 Chloe Ellis Photography
🌸 Forever Green Flower Co (and Meg's mum's garden!)
✨ Epic Event Hire
🎶 Clique at Entertainment Nation
👗 City Brides
🧵 Pink Couture

💖 If you'd like to become Mr and Mrs, Mr and Mr, Mrs and Mrs or Mx and Mx, contact Kirsten and Gemma to find out how we can make your day by emailing [email protected] or calling our team on 01603 626402 👩‍❤️‍👨👨‍❤️‍👨👩‍❤️‍👩

And explore our wedding brochure, filled with fresh menus and packages:
www.assemblyhousenorwich.co.uk/weddings/brochure

🏩🫖🧁🥂 Our Afternoon Tea, Fizz, Stay and Breakfast deal is currently looking extremely attractive to anyone who has spent ...
23/06/2026

🏩🫖🧁🥂 Our Afternoon Tea, Fizz, Stay and Breakfast deal is currently looking extremely attractive to anyone who has spent the past week slowly melting into a patio chair 🥂🧁🫖🏩

Let's be honest, it's been hot.
The sort of hot where you start every conversation with "it's the humidity..."
The sort of hot where your duvet becomes a personal enemy.
The sort of hot where you've spent several nights lying awake wondering whether it would be socially acceptable to sleep in the fridge.

Which means that what many of us need right now is not another barbecue, another load of washing, or another evening wondering why we've somehow acquired 47 houseflies and 6,419 ants in our kitchen.

What we need is a night off - a proper one.

The kind where somebody else makes the sandwiches, pours the fizz, plumps the pillows, cooks the breakfast and generally takes responsibility for your wellbeing while you sit in a beautiful Georgian house embracing the fact you don't know where the hoover lives.

Fortunately, that's exactly what this deal does.

For £215 for TWO PEOPLE (until at least the end of September), you'll get:

🫖🧁 Afternoon Tea for Two
🍾🥂 A bottle of fizz in your room
🏩🛌 A night in one of our luxury bedrooms
🥓🍳🥐 A freshly cooked-to-order breakfast the following morning

And judging by our diary, quite a lot of you have already decided this sounds preferable to spending another evening standing in front of a fan rotating like a supermarket rotisserie chicken.

Here's what's left for NEW BOOKINGS:

🏩 Sunday 28 June: Rooms 7, 11, 14 and 15
🏩 Monday 29 June: Rooms 3, 7, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15
🏩 Tuesday 30 June: Room 11
🏩 Wednesday 1 July: Rooms 8, 10, 14, 15
🏩 Friday 3 July: Room 11 (Fridays are at normal rate because, despite our best efforts, we have yet to discover a way of suspending the laws of economics)

Call 01603 626402 or book online before somebody else nabs the last suite and leaves you spending another evening Googling "WHEN WILL THIS HEATWAVE END?" with increasing desperation: www.assemblyhousenorwich.co.uk/luxury-bedrooms

🚨🪄✨ ATTENTION GODMOTHERS ✨🪄🚨This is your official notice that Cinderella Afternoon Tea 🪄✨👑 will shortly arrive at The As...
23/06/2026

🚨🪄✨ ATTENTION GODMOTHERS ✨🪄🚨

This is your official notice that Cinderella Afternoon Tea 🪄✨👑 will shortly arrive at The Assembly House and with it, the opportunity to dramatically improve your godmothering statistics.

Because let's be honest: when you agreed to become a godmother, there was probably some vague discussion about guiding a child through life, enriching their spiritual development, being a trusted adult role model and helping them become a wonderful human being.

And then life happened, and before you knew it, your entire contribution to their pastoral upbringing consisted of a birthday card, a Christmas card and occasionally transferring £20 with the message: "buy yourself something nice."

✨ UNTIL NOW ✨ Because from July 1, we are offering godmothers the chance to perform an actual act of magic: no pumpkins required, no mice required, no bibbidi-bobbidi anything required.

Simply book a Cinderella Afternoon Tea and spend a couple of enchanted hours eating cake, making memories and being exactly the sort of fairy godmother you confidently promised to be during the christening.

Consider it a Get Out Of Godmother* Jail Free card, a chance to remind your godchild that you are, in fact, a magical presence in their life and not simply a name that appears on cards twice a year.

There will be glass slippers, there will be fairy godmother wands, there will be sparkle, there will be cakes and frankly that's more useful than many fairy godmothers manage.

If you're a godCHILD, please tag a godmother who needs this intervention below: your spiritual wellbeing will thank you later.

Cinderella Afternoon Tea 🪄✨👑 arrives on July 1 and runs until September 6.
Book here: www.assemblyhousenorwich.co.uk/afternoon-tea/menus

* Also works for Godfathers. We are an equal opportunity magic-making establishment.

❤️ Here’s to the dads ❤️Today we celebrate fathers, grandfathers and father figures everywhere.The ones who made us laug...
21/06/2026

❤️ Here’s to the dads ❤️

Today we celebrate fathers, grandfathers and father figures everywhere.

The ones who made us laugh until our sides hurt, who patiently explained things three times, who answered late-night phone calls, who gave lifts, advice, encouragement and occasionally wonderfully questionable DIY solutions.

We celebrate stepdads, foster dads, adoptive dads and dads-to-be.

Grandads who became father figures all over again. Uncles, brothers, godparents, mentors and family friends who stepped up when they were needed. Mums who have carried both roles. Anyone whose love, guidance and care helped shape a life.

Because love makes a father, and fatherhood comes in many forms.

But we also know all too well that today can be a difficult and tender day.

If you are missing your dad.
If you never knew him.
If your relationship is complicated.
If you are longing to become a father.
If you are grieving a child.
If today simply feels difficult while the world celebrates.

Please know you are not alone. We are thinking of you and holding a little space in our hearts for you today.

To everyone celebrating with us at The Assembly House, thank you for letting us be part of your family moments. And to anyone carrying something heavier today, we hope the day is gentle with you ❤️

PS Who was to know that little girl would grow up to be an EXPERT at cheese puns? I'd like to think my Dad, a high school English teacher, would smile to think he had a hand in that! Love you, Dad ###

PPS Drop us a photo of you with your Dad in the comments and I'll invite one of you and a guest to come into the Grand Hall for scones and tea. Let's see how many people make it to the end of the post!

☀️ IT IS NOW OFFICIALLY GETTING DARKER...SO NATURALLY, WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT IGLOOS ☀️At precisely 9.24am* this morning,...
21/06/2026

☀️ IT IS NOW OFFICIALLY GETTING DARKER...SO NATURALLY, WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT IGLOOS ☀️

At precisely 9.24am* this morning, the Summer Solstice arrived: the longest day of the year, peak sunshine, maximum daylight, the absolute zenith of summer.

From this moment onwards, every single day will be fractionally shorter than the one before: in other words, Christmas is basically upon us.

Please don't argue with the science.

While some people will waste valuable time talking about picnics, barbecues, strawberries and whether Norfolk might somehow manage an entire week without experiencing all four seasons, we prefer to focus on what really matters:

🎄 Heated igloos
🧀 Melted cheese
🍸 Festive cocktails
✨ Twinkly lights
🎅 The opportunity to sit in a cosy dome pretending you're starring in a Christmas film whilst somebody else does the washing up

Look, we don't make the rules: the Earth has tilted, the nights are drawing in, the festive season is advancing towards us at approximately one minute less daylight per day. It would frankly be irresponsible not to mention Christmas.

So, because we're committed to public service, here is everything you need to know about our Christmas Igloos:
✨ Menus
✨ Prices
✨ Availability
✨ Booking information
✨ Important details concerning the consumption of cheese whilst surrounded by fairy lights
Have a look here: www.assemblyhousenorwich.co.uk/christmas-2026-at-the-assembly-house/igloos

Weekend availability is already looking patchier than British summer weather, so if you're the sort of person who owns a colour-coded spreadsheet, now is your moment. Everyone else will be panic-booking at the end of October, as is tradition, give yourself a head start.

(FGS Assembly House, it's JUNE)

* The Summer Solstice occurred at 9:24am BST on 21 June 2026, when the Sun reached its northernmost point in the sky. Sunrise times (such as 4:29am in Lowestoft) are a separate event and not the moment of the solstice itself. My Uncle worked at NASA. I know my astronomical events.

☔😤 It's English Whine Week 😤☔ 🙄 A time-honoured British tradition where we gather together to complain about the weathe...
20/06/2026

☔😤 It's English Whine Week 😤☔ 🙄

A time-honoured British tradition where we gather together to complain about the weather, the trains, the weather affecting the trains, people driving too fast, people driving too slowly and the shocking price of absolutely everything.

Hang on, sorry. English WINE Week: entirely different thing.

English Wine Week is one we're very happy to celebrate, because for the last year we've swapped our Afternoon Tea prosecco upgrade for sparkling wine from Flint Vineyard and you've absolutely loved it.

So much so that we're delighted to announce that The Assembly House is now a flagship partner of Flint. We weren't looking for anything serious, but one glass led to another and now we've changed our relationship status. After a year together, we felt it was time to stop seeing other sparkling wines.

(Serious voice) Just down the road in the Waveney Valley, Flint has become one of England's most exciting vineyards, producing beautiful wines that are clever, characterful and dangerously easy to drink.

If you've joined us for Afternoon Tea over the last year, chances are you've already raised a glass of Flint. If not, this is your sign.

Here's to local partnerships, brilliant English wine and a week dedicated to drinking it rather than whining about things. Although if the weather is rubbish, all bets are off.

🥂✨ WHATEVER YOU'RE CELEBRATING, WE'VE PROBABLY GOT A CHANDELIER FOR IT ✨🥂Birthday? Chandelier. Baby shower? Chandelier. ...
19/06/2026

🥂✨ WHATEVER YOU'RE CELEBRATING, WE'VE PROBABLY GOT A CHANDELIER FOR IT ✨🥂

Birthday? Chandelier. Baby shower? Chandelier. Retirement? Several chandeliers.
Promotion? Chandelier. Surviving your extended family for another Christmas?
The biggest chandelier we can find.

The Assembly House has spent over 270 years hosting life's biggest moments, from the joyous to the emotional, the elegant to the slightly chaotic and we're delighted to report that we've become exceptionally good at looking after people while they celebrate things.

We've recently refreshed our private dining and party menus, given our event spaces a little extra sparkle and polished enough crystal to temporarily blind a passing pigeon.

So whether you're planning:

🎉 A birthday that ends with dancing
👶 A baby shower involving tiny sandwiches and unsolicited parenting advice
💍 An engagement party
🥂 An anniversary
👯 A hen party
🏆 A retirement do
❤️ A family gathering
🎈 Or simply an excuse to get everybody together and eat pudding
..we've got a room, a menu and a team ready to make it happen.

The truth is, life gives us far too few reasons to gather around a table with people we love, so when one comes along, it deserves more than a packet of cocktail sausages balanced on a kitchen worktop.

Call our events team on 01603 626402 or email [email protected]

You bring the guests, we'll provide the chandeliers, the food and the sort of surroundings that make everyone take their phones out and say, "oooh!"

Which, frankly, is one of the highest compliments available in modern society.

🍰 SOME OF THE BEST IDEAS START WITH CAKE 🍰A few weeks ago, team member Sam casually suggested that some of our events mi...
18/06/2026

🍰 SOME OF THE BEST IDEAS START WITH CAKE 🍰

A few weeks ago, team member Sam casually suggested that some of our events might be improved by the addition of a cake bar.

Book launches. Society meetings. Networking events. Talks. Gatherings. That kind of thing.

His exact words have been lost to history, but the general theme was: "what if there was more cake?" and reader, he had a point.

Because while we firmly believe in the power of ideas, conversation, literature, business networking and intellectual debate, we also recognise that most of those things become approximately 73% more enjoyable when accompanied by brownies or cupcakes or miniature fruit tarts or anything involving buttercream.

So we're delighted to announce that Cake Bars are now available as an option for events at The Assembly House.

Unfortunately, we cannot guarantee that Sam himself will be included with the cake bar. Apparently he has to have the odd day off.

Call 01603 626402 or email [email protected] because while not every event needs cake, we're struggling to think of one that wouldn't be improved by it.

🍟🥪🍲👑The unsung hero of our lunch menu 👑🍲🥪🍟Every menu has its celebrities: the glamorous ones, the attention-seekers, the...
16/06/2026

🍟🥪🍲👑The unsung hero of our lunch menu 👑🍲🥪🍟

Every menu has its celebrities: the glamorous ones, the attention-seekers, the dishes that arrive to a chorus of camera shutters and spend the afternoon posing on Instagram.

At The Assembly House, that's Afternoon Tea.

But today we'd like to spare a thought for the quiet hero of the lunch menu: Soup, Chips, Sandwich. No dramatic entrance, no themed cakes, no tiny edible keys.

Just a bowl of homemade soup, a stack of finger sandwiches and a generous helping of chips, turning up day after day and getting the job done.

While Afternoon Tea is swanning about beneath the chandeliers being photographed from seventeen different angles, Soup, Chips and Sandwich is quietly feeding Norwich.

It's there when you've popped in for a catch-up with a friend, it's there when you've escaped the office for an hour, there when you've spent the morning shopping and suddenly realised you're starving.

It's there for grandparents, parents, children, students, workers, retirees and everyone in between - reliable, comforting and unpretentious.

The lunch equivalent of that friend who helps you move house without being asked.

And despite all the fuss made over some of its more glamorous menu companions, Soup, Chips and Sandwich remains one of our biggest sellers.

Turns out that sometimes what people really want isn't edible theatre, sometimes they want soup, and chips and sandwiches. And who can blame them?

🍎🍂 There are two types of people in September 🍂🍎People who say, "I love the changing colours, the crisp mornings and the...
15/06/2026

🍎🍂 There are two types of people in September 🍂🍎

People who say, "I love the changing colours, the crisp mornings and the golden autumn sunshine."

And people who say, "is there crumble?"

We're delighted to announce the return of The Pudding Parade, this time dressed in its harvest finery.

On Thursday 17 September, Puddings of Plenty rolls into The Assembly House with a glorious procession of apple pies, blackberry delights, treacle sponge, sticky toffee pudding, bread and butter pudding and enough crumble to make a scarecrow weep with happiness.

There will be soup, there will be supper, there will be David Clayton offering pudding commentary with the seriousness of a man discussing matters of national importance.

Most importantly, there will be no queuing: after the ceremonial parade, each table receives its own selection of puddings to share, sample and fall hopelessly in love with.

Think orchard fruits, think hedgerow berries, think cosy season arriving with a spoon in one hand and custard in the other.

£40.95 per person, call 01603 626402 to avoid the Eventbrite booking fee, full menu and more details here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-pudding-parade-puddings-of-plenty-tickets-1971473764099

Warning: attendance may result in strong opinions about crumble toppings and a sudden desire to buy knitwear.

Address

Theatre Street
Norwich
NR21RQ

Telephone

+441603626402

Website

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