11-82-90 Lewis's Bank Blackpool

Lewis’s Department Store opens on Blackpool promenade in 1964, bringing the “shopping and banking experience in one” to one of our most loved seaside resorts. The building boasts an advanced heating and air distribution system, making it a desireable place at which to work. Lewis’s is itself still a major player, able to expand at a time when young people start to have more disposable income than ever before. However, nothing lasts forever, and the store closes in 1993. After some redevelopment, it becomes the home of Woolworths until that once great institution also meets its demise, in 2008. In our feature from Martins Bank Magazine, we meet Ken Dodd, who drops in to open an account…

1964 03 MBM.jpg it is hard to believe that the newest branch of Lewis's Bank, which opened at Blackpool in April on the first floor of Lewis's new store, is part of the site on the promenade where the old Palace Theatre and Ballroom stood but of which no trace can be found today. The branch office is simply but most attractively designed and overlooks a shopping area on the landward side, unlike the sales floors in the store itself which have no windows - a feature of which most people are quite unaware. An early visitor was comedian Ken Dodd seen here with, left to right, Mr R. E. Jones (Public Relations Officer of Lewis's Limited), Mr D. Barnie (Manager), Miss W. M. Hodgkins, Miss O. M. Goss and Mrs D. Tinker.

It is worthy of mention that from the time the site was cleared the new building was completed in the specified eighteen months and was one of the first multi-storey projects programmed on computer by the Critical Path Method to assess the relative importance of each individual operation. The exposed position prompted the designers to place all plant such as boilers and ventilation equipment on the roof rather than make a sub-basement and, by means of mechanical fans, the air throughout the store is changed every eight and a half minutes. In these conditions it is not surprising that Mr D. Barnie, Manager of the new branch, is pleased with his surroundings and both he and his wife felt that fate had been doubly kind to them when they found the right house to live in at the time the new branch opened. Mr Barnie joined Lewis's Bank, Manchester, following National Service and later spent three years in Birmingham as Assistant Manager. Mrs Barnie was also on the staff of the Manchester branch prior to her marriage. Mr Barnie's staff at Blackpool comprises three bright girls of whom two have previous banking experience, Mrs Tinker with the District Bank and Miss Goss with the Yorkshire Bank, while Miss Hodgkins had earlier office training. They have taken to their new work quickly and, as the photograph indicates, the new branch of Lewis's Bank has its full share of counter attraction.