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  In its heyday, Lewis’s is
Britain’s largest chain of department stores – almost unrivalled, able to
make bulk purchases that allowed them to literally pile the goods high, and
to sell them cheaply. Known as “the
store of the thrifty, of people who pay as they go” Lewis’s is a lifeline for
those of even less than modest
incomes – but don’t be fooled, this wasn’t a pile of old tat. From the beginning, the stores are about
the EXPERIENCE of shopping, and
crucially, making that experience so rich, full and rewarding, that you would
only ever want to do it all under the same roof. People can meet there, able to obtain
morning coffee, afternoon tea or a full restaurant menu. Musical acts are hired to entertain the
shoppers who will often make their purchases across several floors and many
many departments, but always be able to stop, take a rest, and even be
pampered – beauty parlours and hairdressing salons are available in store,
and of course whenever the cash runs low, Lewis’s Bank is on hand from 1928
onwards, with six FULL days of banking. This includes a children’s
counter to induce in the offspring the same thriftiness as the parent, and a
generous deposit rates, with credit interest paid on Current Accounts -
unheard of at most banks at this time. In the days before credit cards and
cash machines, the in-store bank really is a most sophisticated marketing
ploy. Whilst images of Lewis’s Stores themselves remain at a premium, our
friends at the Potteries web site have made available to us a number of
images relating to Lewis’s Department Store Hanley. We also have a small but growing library of
advertisements for Lewis’s Department Stores, covering the last 100 years,
thanks to our friends at the British Newspaper Archive. Please do enjoy the images on this page,
(but remember that many of them are very much of their time) and you can read
more about the changing face of shopping in Hanley on the Potteries site
at: www.thepotteries.org
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1914 - Birmingham
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1916 - Liverpool
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1933 - Liverpool
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1938 - Glasgow
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Images © Northcliffe Media Limited Image created
courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD Image reproduced
with kind permission of The British Newspaper Archive
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1939 - Leicester
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1953
- Leeds
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1957 – Hanley
Image Courtesy www.thepotteries.org)
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Image
Courtesy www.thepotteries.org
Date
unknown – but who cares, it’s Christmas! You can meet Santa in his grotto,
and choose from what are billed as one thousand and one gifts in Lewis’s
Toy Fair! (Nowadays that figure
would probably have to be independently verified, as we are unable
to use
our imagination in the twenty-first century without a law suit pending)!
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 1967 – Hanley
Image Courtesy www.thepotteries.org
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Slightly
reminiscent of the background displays on BBC Television’s “Blue Peter” in
the 1960s, this eye-catching window display offers the children of 1967 all
they could wish for – including a Robin Hood Set, a drum, a toy cash
register and various cuddlies, from dolls a rabbit
and a panda to TWO different “golliwogs”! The racist stereotypes are
UNACCEPTABLE today, but note too that
sexism is also very much to the fore – boys will dress up as fantasy
fighting characters, whilst girls will practice mothering skills with
dolls, and miniature kitchen and laundry equipment. My, how times have
changed…
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