Lewis's Department Store

riclam · Post by **riclam** » Mon 24 Mar, 2008 12:09 am

everything was ripped out of Lewis's (RIP), ive heard all the bannisters etc are been restored to be placed back in. The place is completey bare and gutted inside at moment.http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonnee/188 ... eds.co.uk/ has some floor plans etc, only 1 original staircase to basement will survive the 'decimation' of the much missed department store.A TX MAX, Siansburys and argos are to open in there this year hardly fitting for the building really!

Bramley4woods · Post by **Bramley4woods** » Mon 24 Mar, 2008 12:40 am

peterg wrote: While one's memory plays tricks as one gets older, I seem to recall a Christmas event from pre WW2 days, maybe 1937 or 1938. To visit Santa, you had to get in a boat (on the starboard side), sit down while the vessel made some movements as if at sea and then get out on the port side to visit Santa in his land.Later on, when at St. Michael's College, we used to walk down to the Central Bus Station, in front of the LGI, down the side of the Town Hall where the Black Marias stopped, up the Headrow and then into Lewis's at the top end, have a look round (during the war years they had events like a flight trainer which I never managed to get, in spite of queueing for hours, but I did manage to learn how to drive a tram) and then out at the Briggate end, now and again a visit to Youngman's fish shop and then on down to the Bus Station.I also remember the thick handrails and the pneumatic money lifts. Oddly enough I remember a similar "sea crossing", but it would have been sometime in the mid '50s. I just wonder if they had a small collection of these christmas dioramas in store somewhere and "bicycled" them between their stores such that no kid of Santa believing age ever got to see the same one twice (at the same store at any rate) ?

wayniac · Post by **wayniac** » Mon 24 Mar, 2008 2:53 am

I remember going to see Santa at Lewis's when I was four and I was terrified. You used to walk through the grotto and stand in line and I remember he had these gorgeous femal assistants too. You used to pay for a present from Santa and I can remember getting a John Bull printing set. You had to mount individual letters on a block of wood and press the block into an ink-pad. Used to get black ink everywhere. Another time I was given a table tennis set and we used to set it up on a small table in the front room and there was so little room, the ping-pong ball would bounce into the open fire and go poof! in the flames.Lewis's had a great selection of loose biscuits in the food hall, we used to shop there after visiting Kirkgate market and get a pound of assorted biscuits (Fox's of course) and great custard creams.I remember the old lift attendants were always dressed like a commissionaire and they controlled the lifts with a great big handle that rotated. The vacuum tubes used to fascinate me too, they would stick your money and a ticket in the tubes and whoosh, off it would go and minutes later the receipt and change would come back. The Co-op on Albion Street had a similar set-up.Always used to get me, entering Lewis's at one end and coming out at a different level. The stairways were a place to explore too, with so many dead-ends and secret little places.The Myer store on Bourke Street in Melbourne is similar. Another store like Lewis's is Macy's in San Francisco. I just love the old department stores.

liits · Post by **liits** » Mon 24 Mar, 2008 3:08 am

I remember being taken to see Santa at Lewis’s sometime in the early70’s. It wasn’t the fact that the Santa was coloured that bothered me, it was the fact that he was wearing glasses!

fevlad · Post by **fevlad** » Mon 24 Mar, 2008 10:47 am

[quotenick="Trojan"] kierentc wrote: I'm an art deco nut! me too.I was very disappointed when the beckets was demolished in meanwood.I didn't mind it not being a boozer any more, but I hoped the building could be kept and used for something else.

Trojan · Post by **Trojan** » Mon 24 Mar, 2008 11:19 am

[quotenick="fevlad"] Trojan wrote: kierentc wrote: I'm an art deco nut! me too.I was very disappointed when the beckets was demolished in meanwood.I didn't mind it not being a boozer any more, but I hoped the building could be kept and used for something else. We went in the Queens bar on Friday - just for a look - I've never been in there before - and we were a bit under dressed so we just looked and came out - another art deco classic. I remember the booking hall at Leeds City - that was also art deco as was the News Theatre. There are still fragments to be seen.

fevlad · Post by **fevlad** » Mon 24 Mar, 2008 12:14 pm

[quotenick="Trojan"] fevlad wrote: Trojan wrote: kierentc wrote: I'm an art deco nut! me too.I was very disappointed when the beckets was demolished in meanwood.I didn't mind it not being a boozer any more, but I hoped the building could be kept and used for something else. We went in the Queens bar on Friday - just for a look - I've never been in there before - and we were a bit under dressed so we just looked and came out - another art deco classic. I remember the booking hall at Leeds City - that was also art deco as was the News Theatre. There are still fragments to be seen. the booking hall is prettu much intact after years of being closed off. I think they've respected it. I love the simplicity of the ceiling

Trojan · Post by **Trojan** » Mon 24 Mar, 2008 12:55 pm

[quotenick="fevlad"] Trojan wrote: fevlad wrote: Trojan wrote: kierentc wrote: I'm an art deco nut! me too.I was very disappointed when the beckets was demolished in meanwood.I didn't mind it not being a boozer any more, but I hoped the building could be kept and used for something else. We went in the Queens bar on Friday - just for a look - I've never been in there before - and we were a bit under dressed so we just looked and came out - another art deco classic. I remember the booking hall at Leeds City - that was also art deco as was the News Theatre. There are still fragments to be seen. the booking hall is prettu much intact after years of being closed off. I think they've respected it. I love the simplicity of the ceiling Seeing it now it's hard to believe that the other side of the glass doors, large steam locos used to come in with "The Thames - Clyde Express" and "The Waverley" both of which "up" and "down" trains reversed at Leeds.

fevlad · Post by **fevlad** » Mon 24 Mar, 2008 1:08 pm

[quotenick="Trojan"] fevlad wrote: Trojan wrote: fevlad wrote: Trojan wrote: kierentc wrote: I'm an art deco nut! me too.I was very disappointed when the beckets was demolished in meanwood.I didn't mind it not being a boozer any more, but I hoped the building could be kept and used for something else. We went in the Queens bar on Friday - just for a look - I've never been in there before - and we were a bit under dressed so we just looked and came out - another art deco classic. I remember the booking hall at Leeds City - that was also art deco as was the News Theatre. There are still fragments to be seen. the booking hall is prettu much intact after years of being closed off. I think they've respected it. I love the simplicity of the ceiling Seeing it now it's hard to believe that the other side of the glass doors, large steam locos used to come in with "The Thames - Clyde Express" and "The Waverley" both of which "up" and "down" trains reversed at Leeds. they tended to be Jubilee or Royal Scot Class, with black fives deputising sometimes on these trains.I enjoy walking through the booking hall at busy times-it has a bustling vibe

Trojan · Post by **Trojan** » Mon 24 Mar, 2008 4:22 pm

[quotenick="fevlad"][quotenick="Trojan"][quotenick="fevlad"][quotenick="Trojan"] fevlad wrote: Trojan wrote: kierentc wrote: I'm an art deco nut! Seeing it now it's hard to believe that the other side of the glass doors, large steam locos used to come in with "The Thames - Clyde Express" and "The Waverley" both of which "up" and "down" trains reversed at Leeds. they tended to be Jubilee or Royal Scot Class, with black fives deputising sometimes on these trains.I enjoy walking through the booking hall at busy times-it has a bustling vibe In the late fifties early sixties when I was into railways, we looked forward to a Britannia on at least one of them. I believe before they were withdrawn the A3's were based at Holbeck to operate these trains.