LAST night hordes of beer-drinking punters raised a glass to mark the reopening of a legendary Southampton venue described as “a way of life”.

A bottle of Newcastle Brown was smashed to mark the start of a new chapter of the Frog and Frigate’s history at its launch event.

The Canute Road pub had lain empty for the past six years but new landlords Derek and Lorraine Gardener ripped out the weeds and gave it a fresh lick of paint to allow hundreds of people to relive memories of the famous watering hole.

And it wasn’t just the 100 people at last night’s ticketonly launch event who celebrated the occasion, as it was broadcast live on the internet to the corners of the globe, with people watching in Rome, the Alps and even near Niagara Falls in the United States.

Lorraine told the Daily Echo: “It’s good to get it up and running again.

“It’s been full-on, we’ve had somebody who camped outside and people are still contacting us about it as they did not know it was reopening.”