A POPULAR pub is celebrating 25 years since opening in the town centre.
The Forum pub, in Hexham, was opened on August 17 1999 by developer JD Wetherspoon.
The Courant reported at the time that this would create 16 new jobs at the pub and restaurant based at the old Forum bingo hall.
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Pub manager Stephanie Brew first started working at The Forum, in Hexham, as a part-time bar associate, in September 2015.
She progressed to become the pub's manager in December 2023.
The longest-serving members of staff on her team are floor associate Andrew Robson, who has been at The Forum since December 2010, and kitchen associate Harry Davies, who has worked there since June 2015.
Stephanie said: “The Forum is a real community pub and has been an important community hub for many local residents during the past 25 years.
“All our regular customers have been coming here in the nine years I have worked at the pub.
“It will be lovely to mark the special anniversary with them, with a celebration cake, and we look forward to the next 25 years.”
The pub takes its name from the Forum Cinema, which opened on this site in 1937, and still has some of the original cinema design features.
The Forum itself was built on the site of a previous cinema, the Gem Palace, which showed its first film in 1910.
Initially to be called the Savoy, the Forum took its name from the Latin for 'market place' after Hexham’s supposed Roman origins. The interior of the cinema continued the theme, featuring Roman charioteers.
The opening ceremony of Hexham’s ‘New Wonder Theatre’ was performed by Sir Loftus Bates, who had done the same thing for the Queen’s Hall cinema 16 years earlier.
An audience of 1,000 people was treated to a showing of 'Keep Your Seats, Please', featuring the ukulele-playing music-hall star, George Formby.
The Forum prospered until 1974, when in spite of initiatives such as wrestling displays, competition from television forced its closure.
The foyer was then used as temporary premises for the Midland Bank, before a brief cinematic revival.
The Forum Cinema reopened in 1982, showing Arthur, a comedy starring Dudley Moore and John Gielgud.
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