Three fire crews were called to The Regal pub in central Cambridge late on Friday afternoon after reports of smoke coming from a window.

The Cambridge Arts Picturehouse cinema, which is situated directly above the pub, was evacuated at about 4 p.m. At around 4:50 p.m., the cinema reported that its staff had been allowed to go back inside.

Staff at the pub itself, having evacuated to Downing Place behind the premises, were also given the all-clear go back inside at the same time as the alarms audible from outside the building ceased.

Police were also on hand to control traffic, stopping pedestrians, cyclists and motorists from accessing the stretch of St Andrew’s Street and Regent Street between the junctions with Downing Street and Park Terrace respectively.

The incident appeared to be dealt with swiftly as one of the fire crews left the scene at around 4:40 p.m., with police lifting the roadblock at 5 p.m.

The pub, popular among students (one was heard to lament “why couldn’t it be All Bar One?”), is the second Wetherspoon location in the city to experience a fire in the last year, after The Tivoli pub on Chesterton road was damaged by a blaze last March.

Cambridge Marrow took advantage of the crowd of bemused bystanders caught by the roadblock that assembled outside Emmanuel College to do some fundraising and promote their next ‘spit drive’.