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Lewis's Department Store

Don't remember this entrance to Lewis's. This is a photo from 1946 - very, very busy. Viv.

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Viv this one was on the corner of Bull Street and Corporation Street. I have seen a larger one of this picture where you can see the bollards in the road and it's very clear as to where this corner entrance was.
 
Hi Viv

Its this entrance here on the corner of Bull St - Corporation St.

Phil
 

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Thanks Shortie and Phil. Was it filled in at some time, or was this entrance there throughout the 1980s/90s, well in fact until it closed? Just don't remember it. Viv.
 
Viv

I don't think it was so much filled in as incorporated into the pedestrian subway that they put in when they built the "Hump" on Corporation St. Now that we are no longer thought to be Troglodytes and we are back above ground it is once again visible from the street.

Phil
 

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Ah yes Phil, of course the underpass! Seems to have been a positive effort to get rid of them around town. Some of them were dreadful places. Thanks for that and for the photos. Think I have a photo of the underpass being built, will have a look at it too. Viv.
 
Lewis's used to have a record shop in the subway. I used to walk through there most nights on my way to catch the Night Service bus.

The thing I missed most when the store closed was the Deli, I have never seen such a range of dried sausages, Bratwurst, Kabanos, Krakoska, Wiejska, Mysliwska, Biersheinken, Blutwurst, Bockwurst, Cervelat not to forget the massive range of Italian salami, cheeses and other goodies, you could look down on the counter as you came down the stairs from the Minories.​
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Viv - I remember that entrance to Lewis's (Post #44). My auntie used to work on the make-up counter just before the war (before my time!) and you went through that entrance and down a few steps which took you to the Make-up and Perfume Department.

Judy
 
Hi Judy - I think I usually passed by Lewis's another way and tended never to use that entrance. I'd normally go via the Minories. Like Old & Grey says, the range of the food was astonishing. We usually went in there on a Saturday evening, and it had a wonderful atmosphere; the smells, the interesting products to look at. Such a great pity it no longer exists. It was a Birmingham institution, greatly missed. Found the underpass photo I was looking for. It's probably from the 1960s and shows the building of the underpass at the junction of Corporation St and Bull St. Viv.

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I worked as a manager at Lewis's in the early 1980's, leaving to have a baby...the store by that time had been subject to a management buy out and had reduced the trading hours and floors, it had been a great place to work and I was very sad to find that it was closing. There was so much history behind the scenes that customers did not see on the floors that were no longer used.
 
I was in Liverpool last week. Although the store still shows the Lewis's name it has been closed for many years. This time the front was covered in scaffolding which means that you could not see the artwork over the front door which gave us the line in the song "We meet under a statue exceedingly bare"
 
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My Mom always called into Lewis's whenever she was in the city.
 
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I have inadvertantly posted this on a second thread about Lewis's.
 
Hello Stitcher,
I have searched through the old messages but can't find any mention of a pet shop on the top of Lewis's I am sure that I purchased 2 little chicks from the pet shop. They grew to be 2 large cockerels.Although my parents were not pleased with me, as used to keep hens, they said to keep them warm I would be allowed to keep them in a box in the airing cuboard until they grew a little bigger. (As they did not have any lights availabe in the pens.
I think the pet shop had to close down as they had Parrot Desease in the bird section.
Pam Carlton
 
pamela carlton said:
Hello Stitcher,
I have searched through the old messages but can't find any mention of a pet shop on the top of Lewis's I am sure that I purchased 2 little chicks from the pet shop. They grew to be 2 large cockerels.Although my parents were not pleased with me, as used to keep hens, they said to keep them warm I would be allowed to keep them in a box in the airing cuboard until they grew a little bigger. (As they did not have any lights availabe in the pens.
I think the pet shop had to close down as they had Parrot Desease in the bird section.
Pam Carlton
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On Saturday shopping trips, in the early fifties, my kid brother and I used to pester our dad to take us up to the roof of Lewis's, we used to stand fascinated, looking down at the traffic a hundred feet below.
In those days there was a menagerie/small zoo on the top floor but I don't recall the pet shop. One of the staff died of a lung infection he picked up from the bird droppings. (I can pronounce the name of the illness but wouldn't dare to try spelling it !)
 
My memory of the Roof Garden is the same as Baz that it was a 'Pets Corner' rather than a pet shop. We used to go up there with our Mom on our trips to 'Town'.

Mom used to buy a few things from the food store but almost dreaded being served by her Sister in Law who would undercharge. Mom was a born worrier and feared being stopped on the way out.
 
The pet corner was still there in the 60s, my great aunts used to take me to Lewis's and we had lunch in the silver service restaurant, also on the top floor I think.
I had my picture taken with a monkey there, as did my brother, but he caught measles the next day and when mom mentioned it at our next visit, she was told that the monkey was no longer there as it was believed it was responsible for the measles outbreak - laughable now as we know it has an incubation period!
And the pet keeper died of psittacosis, a lung disease transmitted via infected bird droppings.
Sue
 
Mom still has a John Bull printing set in the loft, probably came from Lewises at some point lol! And the girls got French knitting sets!
Sue
 
I do remember seeing loads of chicks now you come to mention it and I think they may have been on my favourite floor (the fifth).

No trip to Town was ever complete until we visited the Toy floor with me mum (early 60's) and a banana milk shake in the cafe on the ground floor. I was also the proud owner of one of the John Bull printing sets too ~ so thx Mary for that memory too.
 
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