• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team

Grand Hotel?

Jayell

master brummie
Does anyone know where this photo might have been taken? It was taken in July 1941, and my auntie, Evelyn Hanson, is seated second from left in the floral dress.

I know she worked at Lewis's on the Perfume & Make Up counter until the beginning of the war, but for the duration of the war she worked in the old Morris factory making parts for aeroplanes as part of the war effort. After the war she worked for many years as Head Receptionist at the Grand Hotel.

I wonder if this was a Lewis's firms do at a Hotel, maybe the Grand. Any ideas? The sign on the wall says:

IMPORTANT NOTICE
CONTINUATION OF SERVICE
DURING ‘ALERTS’

We have now arranged that when the City Alert sounds we shall complete the service of meals to customers already in the restaurants.

Directly the roof spotters ring the store alarm bell customers should however, for their own safety, proceed without delay to the reception floors.

Judy
 
Evelyn Hanson

Oops - another senior moment! Thanks for telling me Ernie. Here is the photo that goes with the post. Could this be the Grand Hotel?
 
Last edited:
judy39. Sorry to say Judy that I cannot help you but I really do hope that you get some help with it. If you dont this time, post again later as there are always new members joining that may help. The only thing I can add is that my Aunt Amy worked there ( the Grand Hotel ) in the 1950's as a cleaner.
 
Last edited:
My auntie may have known your Aunt Amy. She left the Grand sometime in the late 1950's when the hotel changed ownership.
 
Last time i stayed at the Grand Hotel was seven years ago. I thought it had gone down hill
 
Ernie - Fancy your knowing my auntie worked there, mind you I think she was quite well known in the hotel. She used to get lots of gifts from the reps that stayed there. Also there were lots of film stars and celebrities who stayed there over the years and she did manage to get me one or two autographs! Judy
 
Lewis's

My father worked all his life at Lewis's until his early death in 1957. He seemed to know all the staff who worked there so I suppose there is the possibility that he knew your aunt.
 
Lewis's

Hello George

What job did your father have at Lewis's? It is more than likely he knew my auntie - small world isn't it? I don't know much about the time she worked there only that she was on the make up and perfume counter until sometime during the war.
 
Lewis's

My father worked at Lewis's for 33 years as a maintenance electrician so was working all over the store, he always gave me the impression that he knew most of the people working there. He was only a fraction over five feet tall and was known to everyone as "Tiny" He used to avoid purchase tax on clothes and shoes by shopping in the children's department, he took a size 3 shoe. Children's clothes and shoe were exempt from purchase tax.
He was lucky to live as long as he did, when B block was being built he fell down the lift shaft but fell across a plank half way down. He went on to loose the top off a finger though standing to close to the winding drums in the lift room.

Could your photograph be from Lewis's? I remember going to wartime children's parties in the dining rooms and they had dark paneled walls.
 
Your poor dad, falling down the lifshaft. That is one of my worst nightmares! What an experience and how lucky he was.

I think you may be right in saying that the photo might be of Lewis's. I had in my mind that it was either The Grand or Lewis's. The date on the back of the photo is July 1941, so she may still have been working there at that date. Eve died in 1991.

Thanks for the information George.

P.S. I can see why your dad had the nickname of Tiny, must have saved a packet on clothes over the years
 
Lewis's

Lewis's did have a rather smart restaurant on the top floor. During the war they put on children's parties at christmas, I am not sure if they were for all staff children or just ones with fathers who were away, my father was in the RAF. My father used to make the animated models for the Christmas grotto

What part of Devon are you living in? My brother lived in Torquay from about 1960 until moving to Spain about two years ago. he used to work as an entertainer in the hotels with his wife who played the organ. My mother also moved there shortly afterwards, she first had a shop in Dawlish Warren, a guest house in Torquay and finally lived in Newton Abbot until she died in1999
 
The Christmas Grotto at Lewis's was fantastic. Always used to go there as a child, and remember queing for hours (well it seemed like that) on the stairs to get up to the top floor.

I'm live in Torquay.
 
Back
Top