Last week we featured a picture of Bridge Street with the Lyceum Theatre and the Queens Hotel.

TODAY’S picture will bring back hundreds of memories offor the Queens Hotel and its surrounds. Now a Wetherspoon’s pub, it used to be a regular meeting point over the decades and hosted all sorts of dinners and dances. The Bridge Street entrance was for many years known as "‘Gods Waiting Room’" being popular with the daily crowd. On the picture is plenty of other town history, with the grand Lyceum Theatre to the right.

Jim Dyer, Newport

THE shop in the on R.H.S of photograph with the sign above ‘"Master Hatter’" was a chemist’s shop run by Hortensius Asdinall. His wife, Edith, a milliner, ran the shop next door.

Hortensius was born in Liverpool in 1865 and died on 8 March 8, 1907, of pernicious anaemia. He was buried in the row of graves at the right hand chapel in St. Woolos’ Cemetery.

Mary Walker, Newport

I WAS one of the Mitchell and Hammerton panto girls. I lived in Gaskell Street, Newport, I made a lot of friends with the girls. It was a lovely time and I met acts, from all over the world. When the pantomime season finished some of the girls, were going up to London to the Windmill Theatre. We had auditionsadditions and passed, but my mum wasn’t very happy with me staying in London, so I started to do some modelling.

In between pantos my friend Jill and I, used to go down to Porthcawl and do hotel work, while there I entered carnival queen and won. Then we would come back to Newport, for the pantomime season. We all loved it and they would put on a lovely show, it was a very sad time when they demolished the Lyceum Theatre, it was like loosing part of our history.

Dulcie Dodd, Bridgend

THIS is a photo taken up past the Lamb. The then photo shows the toilets outside of the Queens Hotel. I know there was a phone box added to the island because in April 1967 after a morning shift I phone the RGH to see if my wife was coming home only to be told that was unlikely as she was in the labour ward. I could not go down till visiting hours that evening. I phoned at 5pm and I went to tell her mum. He is now 48 years old.

Ray Smith, Newport