Queue for Wetherspoons in Weymouth a repeat of queue for Forte's

From the 1920s until the 1970s, the building housed Forte’s Soda and Milk Bar and this picture on the left, taken in the 1950s, shows a queue of people outside Fortes keen to get an ice-cream!

Back then Fortes in Weymouth was originally owned by Alfonso and Carolina Forte then sold to Antonio and Clementina Fusco (née Forte).

Fortes in Weymouth 1950s - originally owned by Alfonso and Carolina Forte then sold to Antonio and Clementina Fusco (née Forte)

The soda and milk bar even had its own namesake gang - the Forte’s mob, who met at Forte’s café in the 1950s and 1960s.

1 Frederick Place was originally part of a terrace of 12 houses, built in 1834 in the gardens of Gloucester Lodge. It was owned by Prince William Henry, Duke of Gloucester, and brother of George III.

It is now home to Wetherspoon pub the William Henry and just a few days ago we saw a similar scene to the 1950s when people formed an orderly queue to enter the newly refurbished pub, which had been closed while it underwent a £500k revamp.

A long queue of pubgoers wait to go inside the newly reopened William Henry Wetherspoon pub in Weymouth Image: James Buckley Photography/West Dorset CAMRA