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Lewis's Department Store

  • Thread starter Thread starter Kandor
  • Start date Start date
Quite understandable today Viv, but I didn't give give a second thought to placing my trust in Mr Holly or Santa, back then. That said, I always had my Nan with me at Lewis's when I sat on Santa's lap. Different more innocent times back then, I think and before we had to teach our own children about "Stranger Danger" ourselves.
 
John L said:
Quite understandable today Viv, but I didn't give give a second thought to placing my trust in Mr Holly or Santa, back then. That said, I always had my Nan with me at Lewis's when I sat on Santa's lap. Different more innocent times back then, I think and before we had to teach our own children about "Stranger Danger" ourselves.
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posted before

A Birmingham Christmas Wish List

I quite enjoyed that. Some very well shot footage there, edited together to produce a smashing piece of nostalgia capturing a typical family Christmas from the 60’s. A real 'how things used to be' reminder of the past. You dad was a very well skilled filmmaker, bearing in mind he (assumingly)...
birminghamhistory.co.uk
 
John L said:
Quite understandable today Viv, but I didn't give give a second thought to placing my trust in Mr Holly or Santa, back then. That said, I always had my Nan with me at Lewis's when I sat on Santa's lap. Different more innocent times back then, I think and before we had to teach our own children about "Stranger Danger" ourselves.
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Younger and innocent back then those thoughts never entered our minds. Nowadays we have become more wary.
 
Terence David Lines said:
Only thing I remember about Lewis’s. Father Christmas Grotto was always on the top floor.
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The fifth floor to be exact, as that was where the toy floor was situated. The Lewis's Grotto was the best in town, although I might be slightly biased, as I spent many years building and eventually designing them too! A great part of my working life was spent learning my skills in the Lewis's Display Department, I started at 16 years old as a junior window dresser ending up as assistant promotions manager. My Lewis's days ended when the store made all the middle ranking management redundant in an attempt to save the store's future. Sadly, twelve months later everyone else lost their jobs too as Lewis's closed for good.... Great times, will write a book one day! Wouldn't have missed a minute of it!
 
Time Traveller 66 said:
Younger and innocent back then those thoughts never entered our minds. Nowadays we have become more wary.
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I remember queueing up the stairs at Lewis's to see Father Christmas, being thrilled with the magic of the Grotto scenes, looking forward to getting a present, but then getting nervous as my turn to sit on FC's knee came....he'd know that I hadn't been as good as I should have been, and tell my Mom!!!
 
Just noticed some txts on Lewis's in the late 50s early 60s my grandad Alfred "Bade" Ainsworth used to work the lifts there I always marvelled at how he stopped it right on the button!! If I timed my visit to coincide with his break I used to get a cup of tea and a cake in the canteen! It all got automated not long after, but he always had to have 2 or 3 jobs on the go even if he was in his dotage so he went off and got a job as a tea boy at BOC!
 
Vivienne14 said:
Uncle H looked a bit scary to be honest - well at least on the badge ! Although a BIG fan of Christmas and am an early Christmas decorator, I’m not too keen on Father Christmas or Mr Holly. Sorry folks, goes against all we teach children to not put their trust in strangers. As a child I was not keen on people ‘imitating’ Santa at all. And prefer them at a distance today. Just my opinion. Viv.
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Yes, Vivienne, he looks like a slightly unsavoury amalgam of W C Fields and Oliver Hardy. Quoting WC Fields, "I love children, but I couldn't eat a whole one!" Nuff sed!
 
Barry Hughes said:
The fifth floor to be exact, as that was where the toy floor was situated. The Lewis's Grotto was the best in town, although I might be slightly biased, as I spent many years building and eventually designing them too! A great part of my working life was spent learning my skills in the Lewis's Display Department, I started at 16 years old as a junior window dresser ending up as assistant promotions manager. My Lewis's days ended when the store made all the middle ranking management redundant in an attempt to save the store's future. Sadly, twelve months later everyone else lost their jobs too as Lewis's closed for good.... Great times, will write a book one day! Wouldn't have missed a minute of it!
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The Grotto's were great so i don't blame you for being biased think of the thousands of happy smiling faces both young and old over the years you have helped create and are still talking about it now.
 
Barry Hughes said:
The fifth floor to be exact, as that was where the toy floor was situated. The Lewis's Grotto was the best in town, although I might be slightly biased, as I spent many years building and eventually designing them too! A great part of my working life was spent learning my skills in the Lewis's Display Department, I started at 16 years old as a junior window dresser ending up as assistant promotions manager. My Lewis's days ended when the store made all the middle ranking management redundant in an attempt to save the store's future. Sadly, twelve months later everyone else lost their jobs too as Lewis's closed for good.... Great times, will write a book one day! Wouldn't have missed a minute of it!
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:heart_eyes::grinning:
 
Hawkmoon said:
I will print the thread off and see what reaction i get from him. He has told me many stories of his life at Lewis's, including bombs being dropped into the Liverpool store during the war, not exploding and found resting against the store managers desk. The managers canteen in Birmingham being in the same room as the shop workers, but being partitioned with a curtain. He tells me that many years ago, the store sold off a number of fixtures and fittings to the staff and he managed to get hold of a workbench from DIY which he still has in his shed, an oak door which still hangs in his garage and a few other bits and bobs. For those of you who may remember him, his name is Don Pickavance (advertising manager untill retiring in 1981) and I believe he worked for Don Aeron (spelling). I will update once i have spoken to him.

Andy
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Hello, I worked in the Display Department in Lewis's Birmingham from the early 70's to lare 80's. I remember Mr Pickervance and Mr Aaron from the Publicity Department, although my ranking in the early days meant that I never came into contact with them, although my bosses worked closely with them with reference to advertising, promotions, exhibitions, seasonal displays and of course sale events, Mr Jack Tucker was my first Display Manager, a Liverpudlian, his Assistant Manager was Mr Ron Lester. Val Stanton worked in Publicity back then too, eventually leading the dept.
 
TDH said:
Gosh, what a great forum and a brilliant thread! It's certainly brought back a few memories for me as I worked at Lewis's between 1968 and 1978. It's good to see a couple of postings from my old mate Colin - we started at the same time and I went on to be best man at his wedding - how are you doing bud?

A few things mentioned earlier in the thread have rung bells with me: those signal lights - yes, they were for alerting staff when they had a call. Mine were red and white and I still think about them whenever I see a car with its reversing and stop lights on together!; somebody referred to Clark Gable in a thread - that reminded me of a poor soul who used to come in regularly and regale us all with how she'd been married to him, in the war, last week; Don Pickavance - I remember him well, he was a nice guy although I always found Mr Aaron a bit scary! The other person in that team was Mr Tucker who was the senior manager in charge of display; Gerry England - he was my manager for a while and he was very scary and bad tempered. I eventually had a big falling out with him and was transferred to the training department where I eventually became Training Manager, quite a big move as I've spent the rest of my working life in training in one form or another; the lady in the Staff Office who somebody was asking about was Mrs Waldron. Her bark was worse than her bite as well; somebody mentioned the half-day induction that Saturday staff went through - I probably delivered that in the early seventies; the porters with various disabilities - most of them were war veterans who'd been taken on as a result of legislation. There was a little guy, whose name escapes me, who used to work the lifts and stand on the staff entrance checking parcels. He had a wooden leg and I remember him trying to run across Corporation Street after a trip to The Cabin and his leg fell off in the middle of the road!

Some other memories: we used to go to college with kids from Grays and Rackhams and I remember being on the roof one winter having a snowball fight with mates on the roof of Grays across Bull Street; I also met my future wife on my first day at work - she was one of the Miss Selfridge babes; I worked for a while on the furniture floor (manager was Jim -'don't call me Rafferty' - Raftery, also Pete Johnson who I think is in one of those prize day photos). All the phones were connected together and we used to wind colleagues up with spoof calls - a couple I remember were somebody 'phoning Johnny Severn, manager of dress materials, complaining that the material and pattern he'd bought weren't big enough for his wife's bum, and somebody phoning Tom Kennedy, ASM on Kitchen Furniture, to say that the sink top that had been delivered had a hole in it. We all used to listen in and heard Tom trying to explain that the hole was for a plug!

I remember 'Smasher Day' when we all put in a massive effort to maximise sales - one time I sent a note out to all ASMs telling them that if they wanted to stay over they should book a bed on the bedding dept and breakfast would be served to them first thing - somebody from USDAW took it seriously and I had to keep a low profile for a while.

There's loads more where this came from but work beckons. Maybe more later.
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Mr Trevor Hedges if I remember correctly, training dept with Miss Thaw? .....mid seventies?
 
Hello, just reading through all these great memories of Lewis's, I had a Saturday job there in the shoe department, started there in 1976, the ladies, mens and children's section all next to one another, can't remember the name of the manager at that time, lovely man, I remember going in and asking for any jobs, he handed me a shoe and simply said ' describe this ' I must have done ok, he said OK see you Saturday morning how simple it was to get a job back then. There were a few lovely ladies who also worked there, unfortunately cannot remember their names, happy days!
 
Lanie59 said:
Hello, just reading through all these great memories of Lewis's, I had a Saturday job there in the shoe department, started there in 1976, the ladies, mens and children's section all next to one another, can't remember the name of the manager at that time, lovely man, I remember going in and asking for any jobs, he handed me a shoe and simply said ' describe this ' I must have done ok, he said OK see you Saturday morning how simple it was to get a job back then. There were a few lovely ladies who also worked there, unfortunately cannot remember their names, happy days!
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Its nice when reading these memories and puts a smile on your face. Yes there did seem plenty of jobs back then . Welcome to the forum.
 
Thank you all for these happy memories. I also used to queue with my mum to see Santa. I remember my mum chatting to other mums as we edged our way up the stairs, floor by floor. I think we all must have had a little more patience back in the fifties and early sixties! I seem to remember that the presents came wrapped in tissue paper- pink for girls and dark blue for boys. I suppose that would be unacceptable today.
I also remember clutching my mum’s hand as we made our way back down Corporation Street, listening to the roosting starlings and hoping I’d get a baked potato before we got on the 45 bus.
 
bullring boy said:
Thank you all for these happy memories. I also used to queue with my mum to see Santa. I remember my mum chatting to other mums as we edged our way up the stairs, floor by floor. I think we all must have had a little more patience back in the fifties and early sixties! I seem to remember that the presents came wrapped in tissue paper- pink for girls and dark blue for boys. I suppose that would be unacceptable today.
I also remember clutching my mum’s hand as we made our way back down Corporation Street, listening to the roosting starlings and hoping I’d get a baked potato before we got on the 45 bus.
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Oh yeah do you remember coming out of the clubs for the night service home standing outside Lewis's with everyone eating baked spuds! They were fab!
 
Lewis's January Sale would have them flocking into the store, as it did in 1971 below:

Boxing-Day-Sales-35.jpg
 
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