Theatre-turned-pub where Beatles played turns 70

3 hours ago

Maisie Lillywhite,Gloucestershireand

Maddie Simpson,Gloucestershire

News image — Lorraine and Ross Campbell organised the celebrations at The Regal in Gloucester

BBC A husband and wife, probably in their 70s in a pub. The man is holding a birthday cake with a picture of a pub at night on it, and the woman is holding a big number "70" made out of silver foil. She is wearing a red and black blazer, floral headpiece, and black glasses, and he is wearing a black and white suit and bowtie. Other people can be seen sat behind them inside, and there is an outdoor seating area lit up by sun on the other side of large panes of glass. — Lorraine and Ross Campbell organised the celebrations at The Regal in Gloucester

Fans of cinema and live music have gathered to celebrate the 70th anniversary of a city pub which was once a bustling theatre.

The Regal in Gloucester opened its doors on 19 March 1956 and quickly became a hub of glitz and glamour, welcoming acts such as the Beatles, Cliff Richard, Lonnie Donegan and The Walker Brothers.

It is also the backdrop for fond memories of going to the pictures for many, with E.T. and Star Wars among the films shown.

"I love to get up on the stage and have my ham, egg, and chips where the Beatles were," Lorraine Campbell, who organised the party with her husband, Ross, said.

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The Regal is now a J D Wetherspoon pub, and a 70th birthday party was held on Thursday.

Work on The Regal started in 1939 but was soon halted by the outbreak of the Second World War.

It finally opened in the mid-1950s, with more than 1,000 people packing inside to watch Now and Forever.

In 1963, it became ABC, and the cinema closed temporarily in 1974 to be converted into a triple-screen complex. It was renamed the Cannon in 1988, two years before it closed down.

It became a Wetherspoon pub in 1996.

Mike Kemp/In Pictures via Getty Images An art deco building constructed of Bath stone glows in the sunshine. It is a former cinema with a board on its front that says "The Regal", with large red letters above that also say "The Regal". Some foliage is being grown in pots on the front. — The Regal has been a pub for about 30 years

In March 1963, the Fab Four took to the stage at The Regal, just days before their debut album, Please Please Me, was released commercially.

Campbell said one of her fondest memories of The Regal is queueing in the snow on St Aldate Street to watch Star Wars.

"I think this is a place that everyone in Gloucester has some connection to and it doesn't matter what age group you are either," she said.

"Everyone will have a Regal story."

Submitted A black and white photograph from the 1950s of a group of young women in ball gowns smiling and a man in a bow tie and suit looking straight-faced as he holds his hands in front of him. — Pamela Wright (left, in the floral dress) was a Charm Girl - or usherette - at The Regal

Pamela Wright was a "Charm Girl" - a group of usherettes picked after responding to an advertisement in The Citizen local newspaper.

"Finally it was being opened, the scaffolding came down and they were having Janette Scott coming to open it," Wright, who was 19 when The Regal opened, said.

"We were told we had to turn up and wear a nice ball gown."

Wright said after opening night, there was a big meal and she got "quite drunk" on sherry.

A woman in her late 80s sits turned sideways in her chair at a pub table, with her arm wresting on the back of it. She is wearing a white and beige jumper with a block pattern on it and blue-rimmed glasses with tinted lenses. She has short grey hair. — Pamela Wright was drunk on sherry after the opening night of The Regal

Carol Barton said she used to come to the Minors - film screenings for children on Saturday mornings.

"After the film, we would dance and then that's where I learned to jive," she said.

Barton said she later saw several music stars at The Regal, and has a particularly fond memory of sleeping outside - to her mum's "disgust" - to get front row tickets for The Walker Brothers.

"Next door, there used to be the Wimpy and we would go, if it was cold, and have our hot soup and a roll, and then just come and sit and wait until the morning," she said.

"But it always felt safe and there would always be a policeman around."