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Lewis's Department Store

Does anyone recall an incident at Lewis's where monkeys escaped from 'Pets Corner' on the roof of the building ? I believe it was in the very early 1950's. I am trying to establish a more acurate date in order to research the incident at the Central Library
 
My first job was with a company that delivered and repaired Colour Televisions (state of the art then) radiograms, music centres etc for Cavendish Woodhouse, Lewis's, Debenhams and a few other stores.

I remember finding it exciting to find the underground system under town, which had areas for the other stores there also. There was a dispatch office, which also took returns. I can still recall the faces of the staff but not names.
 
I remember waiting on the stairways for hours (or so it seemed) to see Father Christmas. Not sure which one, and I think they had lots of entrances, but it had one of those elevators that was just an open cage, rattled and banged its way up and down. To this day I have a fear of those open elevators. That would be back in the mid 40's, holy moly that's a long time ago. I think in those days they also had a man in some elevators, he would call out the departments for each floor, ladies clothing, chocolates and mens footware, etc.,.
 
Hi Nishja - I don't remember the cage elevators you spoke of, but I do remember there were two lifts with glass sides both going up and down one shaft. I was in one of these when it broke down midway between floors. It would have probably been the late 1940's, and I was only a little girl. The lift was full and I was squashed into the corner looking down the shaft. I was so frightened, and to this day it takes a lot of courage for me to go in a lift. Some days I can't even step into one.

Judy
 
Hi, you may be right, I just remember being scared out of my mind by those things. We used to have to wait in line to get into the grotto, and as we lived in Yardley we were not very often in the front so had to line up in the stairwells. From what I remember those grotto scene's were magic. I guess I still believed in those days. We used to get 1 big present and lots of little things in our stocking. Come to think of it those elevators may be responsible for lots of trauma and therapy these days (just kidding)
 
I can well remember going into Lewiss most Saturdays, Enids Aunty Ivy worked in the food department in the basement, and further down they always had a good
selection of tools etc; and also kitchen stuff, I missed it when we moved to Burton in 1957, Bernard
 
I don't know if that throughout the whole length of this thread that the following link has been menetioned before, but since it appears that the parent site has just been updated, here goes anyway.

A forumer friend of mine on a different website in another part of the country who specialises in department store history has recommended this link which I hope may bring back memories, especially if anyone was an employee of Lewis's itself.

Go to www.martinsbank.co.uk and then....

1. Click on Lewis's Bank in the left vertical column

2. On THAT home page go right to the bottom and you will see a list of Lewis's branches listed.

3. The one to click on is '11-83-90 Birmingham'

4. Let us all know how you get on!

Richie.
 
My first independent bank account I opened myself as a teenager was at Lewis's Bank which later became Martins Bank. I used to put money in and then have a haircut in the Lewis's Hairdressing dept - they seemed to have everything !
oldmohawk
 
Someone may already have mentioned the little children's 'swings' on the roof of Lewis'; ....I played holy-hell to have ago, and then became hysterical as, when swung, I could see how high-up we were above the town! I still get vertigo to this day, I'm sure it was due my looking over Lewis' parapet! I got lost in Lewis' too, aged about four, and remember being taken to a special 'lost child' collection-point until my Mum eventually collected me....and boy, didn't I get a rare scolding! It was an 'emotional reunion' right enough, but not quite what I'd expected!
 
Not sure if this has been shown before, but snapped it today from a picture on a wall, is this Bull St, near Lewis's?
 
I remember Lewis,s queing for hours to see Uncle Holly and Father Christmas ,going up to the roof garden in summer,i seem to remember a stream with little bridges over and colourfull flower beds. When i started work just down Bull Street in 1962 at Barrows bakery(remember the posh cake shop opposite Rackhams) i would come from work on a Friday clutching my £4 wages and hurry to Lewis,s to buy a pair of stockings or the newly invented tights and a tube of hair lacquer to put in my spray bottle at home. Four years later i would be buying patterns and material to make my wedding dress. I thought it was a great shop and you could buy almost anything under one roof.
 
Just to add,shame Lewis,s closed but im happy the building was saved,i was there this week at the Probate office and i sat there thinking i wonder if this used to be lades underwear. Too many of our old buildings have dissappeared in the name of Birminghams motto Forward. Angela
 
We seem to have lost the photos from this thread so here is a good reminder of Lewis's in it's heyday and the caption to it got it right!.
 
Hi Angela,

I remember buying those tubes of hair lacquer - I used to get Rosedale, and put into a spray bottle at home. I also remember the great fabrics department in Lewis's, with all the patterns to choose from. I used to love that shop there was so much in there. Father Christmas and the grotto, having your hair cut there, the food department where you could buy broken biscuits - I could go on and on. When I got older, I must have visited the shop every Saturday.

My Auntie Eve used to work in the Cosmetics and Perfumery Department before the war. When the war started she left Lewis's to work in a factory for the War Effort.

By the way, I remember Barrows well, and the cafe - was it on the top floor?

Judy
 
View attachment 46258
I don't know if this picture has been posted before.

I've recently been looking through my books with a Birmingham connections and I found this in a book Birmingham As It Was The City 1857-1914.

This isn't the lewis's i remember do'es any body have details of when the frontage was changed.

Ray
 
Ray i never seem to be able to open your attachments they always come up as invalid .Would you be able to point me in the right direction? Dek
 
Ray, you need to alter the file type on your images you have up-loaded the image as a PHP, which is not supported by the forum, alongside the "Manage Attachments" button are the accepted file types
Valid file extensions: doc gif jpe jpeg jpg mp4 pdf png pps psd txt wav wmv xls zip
Click to expand...
PHP files will sometimes open with notebook, but not always.
If anyone has a problem with opening a attachment, right click on the attachment and then click on properties, that will display the file type.


Colin
 
Thank Colin i thought be something like that. What i find is a good idea is to go advanced and then preview post before posting Dek
 
If you right click on the Attachment 46331 on Ray post menu will give you option to open (attachment) you may then be able to see the image, however for those who can't.

Colin
 
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