Birmingham Christmas back in time: Brummies reminisce about magical Father Christmas visits at Lewis's department store

So many Brummies of a certain generation fondly remember Lewis's legendary promotions around Christmas - and queueing up the stairs to see Santa himself.

We asked our BirminghamWorld readers for their best memories of the city’s beloved Lewis’s department store and we were inundated with responses.

Lewis's in Birmingham city centre — originally opened on Corporation Street in 1885.

Founded by the 19th-century philanthropist and innovator David Lewis, it is now regarded as one of the forerunners of the modern department store.

The store traded throughout most of the twentieth century, bringing a taste of 34th street, New York, to Birmingham.

Read more: Mystical stone griffins - Birmingham's forgotten guardians hidden away on housing estate in Shard End with link to Lewis’s department store

Christmas memories at Lewis’s

Julie Cox: "Our mum used to take us to see Santa. I think we had a viewer on a key ring with us meeting Santa."

Ann Norgrove: "I had to go up all the moving stairs to the top before my mom could do any shopping. I remember going with my auntie and uncle in 1954 to see Santa - it was magical. X"

Ian Johnston: "Queuing on the stairs to see Santa. Why Uncle Holly?"

Julia Stallard-Mann: "I loved going to the grotto there as well as in Rackhams."

Lana Byngm: "My children are 49 and 51 years old. I remember well taking them to Lewis's to see Father Christmas and the grotto— happy memories."

Andrew Eves: "Great memories of my childhood climbing the rear stairs and passing through the elves' grotto to get to Santa in Lewis's - magical."

Debra Hill: " Worked at Lewis's for 10 years. Loved the grotto. Those were great days!"

Carole Eakens: "Miss our Lewis's."

Valerie Kennedy "Lewis’s Father Christmas was always the best!"

Jeremy Key-Pugh: "I worked there for the post-Christmas sales the first December after I turned sixteen, in 1961. (I had been a temporary postman up to Christmas!) All I remember about Lewis's was a vast box full of rubber gloves—the old-fashioned kitchen variety. They weren’t in pairs, and finding a match of the same size but opposite hand was a nightmare!"

Sandra Rimell: "Yes, I was going to say all the stairs up!"

Nigel Penn: "Remember seeing Father Christmas there in the early ’50s with his helper, Uncle Holly."

Pamela Walker: "Loved Lewis’s."

Irene Harris: "It was a magical Christmas grotto! My mum used to take me to see my Aunty Gladys, who worked in the restaurant on the top floor! It was what made Christmas wonderful for everyone!"

Sue Dixon: "My memory too. xx"

Valerie Palmer: "Used to go and see Santa there."

Chris O'Neill: "The Christmas grotto and waiting to see Santa—happy times."

Susan Guinivan: "Brilliant Christmas window competitions between them and Rackhams. It was so good."

Sue Burroughes: "Sadly missed…."

Susan Wright: "I remember those days! If you can’t get it at Rackhams, then John Lewis."

Christine Hoare: "Oh, I remember going to see Father Christmas and Uncle Holly in the mid-1950s when I was about 6 or 7. It was so magical - it made your eyes pop with all the sparkle and colour."

Margaret Ann Rock: "My nan and grandad used to take me there to see Father Christmas, then we’d go to the Bull Ring market and have pie and mash."

Viviane Overbeeke: "I bought the most amazing bed sheets there and carried the three sets back home to Belgium, I think in 1970. They were exactly the colours I wanted."

Chris Bassett: "Was it Uncle Holly or Mr. Holly?"

Tricia Entwistle: "Procession through the streets, if I remember rightly. Mr. Holly first?"

Christine Preston: "I remember visiting Father Christmas and receiving a gift of stencils and crayons. An auntie passed away recently, and while clearing her house, we found a Christmas card made with those stencils when I was six years old. I am now 80."

Margaret Hopkins: "Worked in the children’s shoe department on Saturdays in the ’60s. Great store."

Anne Lacey: "I remember when Father Christmas arrived and climbed up the side of Lewis's to get to his grotto. We went to see him there every year when I was a child in the ’60s. The queue up the stairs always seemed so long—but maybe it just felt that way because I was an excited child. Uncle Holly used to give out button badges."

Mayblossom: "The much-anticipated visit to Father Christmas and Uncle Holly, having to promise to be good. The animated displays on the journey to the grotto were a wonder to a young boy all those years ago. Being good was not an easy promise to keep!"

Roger James Dutton: "The grotto was always good."

Diane Skidmore: "Remember queuing to see Father Christmas in his grotto and receiving a gift—happy memories."

Malcolm Wright: "The real Father Christmas was always there."

Paul Coleyshaw: "Lewis's Santa was in contact with the real Santa at the North Pole—or at least that’s what I believed. No other Santa could claim that."

Mary Harper: "Father Christmas & Uncle Holly."

History of Lewis’s department store in Birmingham

The first Lewis's store opened in Liverpool in 1856, primarily selling men's and boys' clothing, most of which was manufactured in-house.

The store expanded into women's clothing in 1864 and added various departments over the years. The first Lewis's store outside Liverpool opened in nearby Manchester in 1877, and another store was opened in Birmingham in 1885.

Read more: 18 nostalgic photos of Birmingham's beloved Lewis's department store

The Birmingham store was closed down in 1991 and rebranded two years later, as two separate sections called Temple Court and Priory Court, either side of the Minories Shopping parade.

In 2017, the building underwent yet another renovation and was dubbed The Lewis Building. Situated in Birmingham's thriving Colmore commercial district, the Space Works now rent out office space in the Lewis Building, at 35 Bull Street.

Lewis's, with its rich history and tradition, brought a taste of New York to Birmingham and left a lasting legacy in the city.

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