Pub bosses have today vowed that a historic Norwich watering hole which has undergone a major refurbishment will still reopen.

The Edith Cavell pub in the city's Tombland closed its doors last year and had its windows whitened out in preparation for a major facelift.

Enterprise Inns, which owns the pub, said the refurbishment would be completed by the end of August last year but the Edith Cavell is still closed more than six months after it first closed.

However a spokesman for the company today insisted they still intended to reopen the pub to the public.

He said: 'It's definitely still our plan to reopen the pub as soon as we can but there's no date. The refurbishment is more or less completed, we're just in the process of recruiting a new publican.'

The pub is one of the city's oldest watering holes which bears the name of the Norfolk's famous war heroine.

The Swardeston-born nurse was shot by a firing squad in 1915 for helping British and Allied soldiers escape from German-occupied Belgium. She is buried in the grounds of Norwich Cathedral and a statue of her stands on Tombland near the pub.

Derek McDonald, Norwich pub historian, said he hoped the pub would reopen soon to help keep that historical connection with the famous nurse alive.

He said: 'It would be nice to reopen it again as Edith Cavell is in the grounds of the cathedral opposite - there's a nice connection there. I hope it does reopen sooner rather than later it's in a lovely building.'

The Edith Cavell had previously been called the Army and Navy Stores from 1879 before taking on the name Edith Cavell in 1981. It changed its name to Coles in 2005 before reverting back to the Edith Cavell in 2008.