William Drake, landlord of the Spread Eagle pub in Sussex Street, Norwich, in the early 1900s, here with some of his Norwich canaries and prize trophies. William Drake was landlord of the Spread Eagle from about 1888 to 1912. The pub was for many years the meeting place of the Norwich Canary Breeders Club. William Drake is thought to have developed the curiously plummaged Norwich crested canary (see below).


The Spread Eagle pub was purpose-built as a drinking tavern in the 1830s or even earlier, at a time when Sussex Street was just beginning to be developed from a farm track into a suburban street. One of the oldest houses in the street bears a plaque dated 1824.