Lewis’s Department Store, Piccadilly, Manchester …. another story from Tony Goulding

This is the front cover of the comprehensive 12-page booklet of company rules and information given to new staff starting work at Lewis’s Store in Piccadilly, Manchester. 

“Welcome to Lewis’s” 

This one was issued to me when I started there as a porter in the perfumery department in the late autumn of 1977, shortly after the shop’s centenary.

Lewis’s in 1905

“Lewis’s” was an iconic department store in Piccadilly, Manchester. It should not be confused with the firm of John Lewis and Partners with which there was no connection. 

In fact, its origins were in a small shop opened by a David Lewis in Ranelagh Street, Liverpool in 1856. 

The business started to grow, first in the range of goods offered for sale and then expanding into new branches. 

The Manchester store, the first outside of Liverpool, situated at a prime location facing Piccadilly Gardens arrived in 1877.

Although a substantial structure, this building proved to be too small for the ever-expanding business and was demolished in 1912 with a much larger premises, twice the size of the original, replacing it in 1915. 

This new build again also soon became inadequate, and an extension was added to its rear more than doubling the shops size again. Finally, a smaller extension was added by acquiring an adjoining property on Mosley Street. 

Piccadilly Gardens in mid-1960s

This was completed in 1929 to designs by Lewis’s Ltd. usual Architects, J.W. Beaumont and Sons with the construction work undertaken by Robert Carlyle and Company Ltd. of Elsinore Road, Old Trafford, Manchester.

This building, now partially occupied by Primark, has five upper floors and a basement. 

As Lewis’s it contained many different departments: a food hall, perfumery, luggage, men’s and women’s wear, furniture and toys. 

There was also a hairdressing outlet and, from 1928, Lewis’s Bank which was acquired by Martin’s Bank in 1958 and sold to Lloyd’s Bank in 1967 but kept trading under Lewis’s name. In 1977 there was a Conley’s Jewelry store located on the ground floor. 

The fifth floor was large enough to accommodate a full-size dance hall and was used as a staff canteen and company offices. The store used to attract customers by holding exhibitions of various kinds; one well remembered one being a large model railway.

The former Lewis’s Store (now a Primark) in 2008

In 1905, the Kinematograph Weekly of the 15th September reported on an incident at Lewis’s department store, Manchester in which a cinematograph show was taking place in the concert room in the basement. 

A fused wire led to hysterical shouts of “FIRE” resulting in hundreds of shoppers running panic-stricken from the busy shop into the street. Fortunately, though some people fainted and others were knocked over in the rush, there were apparently no serious injuries. 

Shoppers in the store nearly 70 years later were not so lucky when it was the target in a mainland bombing campaign by the Provisional I.R.A. 

On the 27th January, 1975 a bomb was detonated in the basement injuring 19 people. 

At the company’s height, after opening more stores including one on Blackpool promenade adjacent to Blackpool Tower, its payroll was in the region of 15,000 employees. 

The company went into a slow decline during the 1980s and 90s. There was a brief revival of the Manchester store when, following the major damage caused to Manchester City Centre by another I.R.A. bomb on Saturday the 15th June, 1996 led to Manchester’s Marks and Spencer and a number of smaller retailers becoming homeless. Lewis’s let out some of its floor space to them. 

This was something of a “false dawn”, however, as the decrease in footfall when these retailers moved out in 1999 brought the store’s problems to the fore again and Manchester’ Lewis’s ceased trading in 2001.

In closing, this is the back page of the "Welcome to Lewis’s” booklet which includes a significant and perhaps prophetic paragraph. (highlighted)

Pictures: - “Welcome to Lewis’s” and Piccadilly postcard (Published by Valentine and Sons Ltd. Of Dundee) from the collection of Tony Goulding. Lewis’s in 1905 m56019 courtesy of Manchester Libraries Archives and Information, Manchester City Council, http://manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass Primark, Manchester Piccadilly in 2008 By Stephen Richards, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21765041