THE last pints at the Regal Bar in Barrow’s Forshaw Street were pulled 25 years ago

The Evening Mail on June 6 in 1992 recorded the last day of the pub.

It noted: “Today marks the end of an era for the beer drinkers of Barrow as the Regal bar on Forshaw street closes after more than 100 years as a licensed premises.

“Landlord and local musician Tommy Halfpenny is moving with wife Helen to the Ram’s Head pub on Rawlinson Street, which he runs with his son Thomas.

“The Regal is to be demolished as part of the Forshaw Street redevelopment and when it goes Barrow will say goodbye to one of its diminishing number of traditional pubs.

“Some regulars at the pub have been drinking there for decades said Tommy, who has

been landlord at the pub for seven years.

“The oldest is 87-year-old Ernie Dixon and another, Dave Lowry, has been a regular since the 1940s.

“We’ll be sad to see the place go,” said Tommy. “Saturday is our last day of opening then

we’re having a small private party on Sunday.

“It’s a pity it has to change with the times as it’s a typical British pub.”

The Regal opened in 1867 as the Star Hotel and it’s history was intertwined with that of the Alexandra Music Hall next door.

Theatre and hotel together were offered at auction in December of 1867 but failed to

reach the reserve price.

They were sold together to Allsops brewery in 1902.

As the theatre’s name changed so did the pub’s to the Tivoli in November 1902 and then to the Regal bar in August 1931.

Cases, Ind Coope, Allsops and C and S breweries have all owned the pub in the past.

One of the great characters associated with the theatre in Forshaw Street was Signor Rino Pepi.

At the age of 30 he bought the Star, having been a performer on its stage during a tour of the provinces in September 1902.

He gave up performing to become what was called an “impresario” and built a theatrical empire.

Signor Pepi was born in 1872 as the son of a merchant in Florence, Italy.

By his early 20s he was a star across Europe.

Queen Victoria liked him so much she gave him a diamond scarf pin.

In 1898 he came to London and for three months he topped the bill at the

Pavilion in Piccadilly Circus – later the Trocadero shopping centre – with a 15- minute sketch called Love Always Victorious.

He played all seven characters in this show, male and female.

After Barrow came Blackpool and then Carlisle.

In 1907 he joined with George Ward to start work on the New Hippodrome and Palace Theatre of Varieties at Parkgate, Darlington.

Next came theatres in Middlesbrough, Bishop Auckland and Shildon.

While all this empire building went on, Signor Pepi lived in Barrow with his wife Mary, Countess de Rossetti.

She dies in December 1915, aged 46, at a time when Signor Pepi’s finances were under strain.

The Middlesbrough theatre had been sold at a £10,000 loss and his Bishop Auckland Hippodrome was shut by 1911.

By the start of the First World War only Barrow and Darlington remained in his ownership.

It seemed people wanted cinema – not variety shows.

He died, aged 55, of lung cancer in Darlington.

His funeral was attended by 200 people at St Augustine’s Roman Catholic Church in Darlington.

A hearse brought his body over the A66 to Barrow to be buried next to his countess – wearing full evening dress.

The Barrow News noted: “It was a bleak November morning, with threatening clouds coursing across the grey sky.

“The coffin was of solid oak, with brass mountings.

“It bore the simple inscription: ‘Rino Pepi, died 17th November 1927, aged 55 years.R.I.P’.

“The grave, in which the deceased’s wife, Countess de Rossetti, was buried in December 1915, was lined with sprigs and leaves of rhododendrons and Irish yew.”