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Now that the 1960’s extension has been confirmed, here is my understanding of the Birmingham Lewis’s timeline. Any additions or corrections will be welcomed. Lewis’s in Birmingham – Timeline 1878 Work on the new Corporation Street begins. 1883 David Lewis opens a tea warehouse at 48 New Street...

Yes, your new photo shows the goods entrance at the north end of Lewis’s very clearly, but it also shows the staircases which presumably led down from the upper floors of the store to roadway level and on down to the pedestrian subway level.

I had not seen these before, so thank you. The first picture shows the area north of Lewis’s as ripe for development, so no wonder the company was allowed to expand that way. Thank you also for the reference to Britain From Above. I was not aware of this treasure house of old photos.

Thank you for clearing up what had been puzzling me, the reference in the newspaper article to a bridge over Colmore Circus. This explains why I couldn’t find this “bridge” on present day maps. The newspaper’s description of delivery vehicles entering from Old Square and leaving at the Colmore...

Your photo tells me what I certainly did not realise, that Lewis’s had expanded beyond the 1924-25 and the 1931-32 block (the bit that’s now called the “Lewis Building”) and had reached as far as Colmore Circus. This encouraged me to look again at the Google Maps satellite 3D view across the top...

DID LEWIS’S 1961 EXPANSION HAPPEN? In March 1961 the local press reported that Lewis’s was planning extensions to their Birmingham store, costing one and a half million pounds, which would increase the shopping area by 20% There would be a new building linked to the main store on the corner of...

Thanks Viv. The link worked well.

Loved your Christmas card, Viv. What a cake! Amazingly like the real, later, building. Your earlier photos of the rebuilding of Lewis’s in 1931-32 were very interesting, particularly the view from Old Square right along the Minories to Bull Street. I have read somewhere that the building...

I am a very new member who is finding the Forum and its posts fascinating. But there is a lot that new members have to learn. I have been using the Forum Practice Area to try out various attachments and I had thought that these tests would remain in the Practice Area. However somehow my drafts...

As mentioned earlier, when my grandfather Gerald de Courcy Fraser was designing the Owen Owen store in Coventry, there was an acrimonious exchange of letters with various officials in Coventry. On 21 August 1936 he wrote to the City Engineer, talking about his experiences in building the...

As I newcomer to the Forum I should like to tell you all how much I have enjoyed all the recent posts about Birmingham’s Lewis’s store. My grandfather Gerald de Courcy Fraser was the architect for the 1924-25 and 1931-32 rebuildings and later.

Here is the architect laying the foundation stone of the Litherland Town Hall in 1939:

For both the rebuildings of the Birmingham Lewis’s between 1924 and 1935 the Architect (my grandfather G de C Fraser) had an office in Temple Row (which leads into the Minories. Here his “resident representative” David Lumsden was based. After eleven years of presumably successful cooperation...

My grandfather Gerald de Courcy Fraser was the architect to the Lewis’s company so not surprisingly his office was in Liverpool. He designed the Lewis’s stores in Liverpool (twice) 1910-23 and 1931-32, Birmingham 1924-25 and 1931-32, Glasgow (now Debenhams) 1932, and Leicester 1939 (demolished...