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 Lewis’s Department Store and Bank
opens in Leicester in 1936. Three
years later, within a month of the outbreak of the Second World War, commerce
and Christmas are king, as the wonderful adverts (below) show - £8,000 worth
of carpets from Bankrupt stock heavily discounted (by six shillings and
eightpence in the pound which is a generous reduction of 33.3%. By the time Mr Hitler’s bombs rain down,
much of Leicestershire is bound to be sleeping snugly on matresses, and under
blankets and sheets purchased from Lewis’s! Our Lewis’s Leicester cheque
dates from April 1959, and helpfully – for historical purposes at least –
Martins Bank is shown along the bottom as Clearing Agents for Lewis’s Bank.
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Image © Martins Bank Archive Collections
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Grantham Journal
- 17 November 1939
As Christmas 1939 approaches, this advertisement shows just how far
Lewis’s will go to provide the best possible Christmas for their customers –
a “Mammoth toy fair” the “thrilling new Pantomime Land” and “Lunch and tea!
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Lincoln Rutland and Stamford Mercury
20 October 1939
Images © D.C.Thomson & Co. Ltd.
Image created courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD
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Fast forward to June 1960, and the visit to Lewis’s Bank Leicester by
Martins Bank Magazine. We find that
the space in which the bank is accommodated within the Store has recently
been re-arranged. We also discover
that the staff is both personable and efficient. Amongst them we find a rare
kind of employee within Lewis’s Bank, a male clerk...
 WE visited the
Leicester branch of Lewis's Bank on Wednesday, June 15th. The Office, which
was opened in 1936, has recently been re-arranged to give more space and the
approach from the store has a modern look - a plate glass
front, including the doors. The fittings, however, are still largely those of
another day - high desks behind the counter and the odd high stool. Behind
these the modern desks are gradually appearing and with further improvements
about to be carried out complete modernisation will gradually come
about. The Manager of the
Leicester branch is Mr. J. C. Hughes, who entered the Bank in 1954 at
Liverpool. He was born in Liverpool but after being bombed out three times his
family moved to Conway, whence derives his North Welsh accent. He did his
National Service in the Nottingham University Air Squadron of the R.A.F. He
was appointed Manager at Hanley in 1957 and at Leicester in June, 1959. The chief clerk and
first cashier is Miss Dorothy Stevenson who was selected for the Bank from
the Store and has been there since February, 1949. Thoroughly competent,
dependable and knowledgeable, she is invaluable at the branch. The second
cashier is Miss Ann Pawley who entered the Bank from school. She has been at
the branch since August, 1954. Then comes Miss Valerie Archer who hails from
Surrey. She has been at the branch
since 1958. A few months after coming
into the Bank she entered for two subjects of Part 1 of the Institute of
Bankers' examinations and passed both. At the time of our visit she was
awaiting the results of her examinations in the remaining subjects. The
junior girl is Miss Jean A. Ward who entered the Bank in February. She lives
in Market Harborough and worked there before applying for a job in the Bank.
The branch is really under strength, there being a vacancy for another girl,
but so far it has not been possible to get one. This is a problem of a city
of over-full employment, working largely on a five-day week. The only other
male is Mr. Martin Clarke who has been on the staff for three years. Banking
is his careful choice of a career and it is quite obvious that he will make a
success of it. Leicester is the first place in which Lewis's Bank has no
children's counter, but, nevertheless, there are hundreds of children's
accounts on the books, and the business follows the usual pattern of the
other branches of Lewis's Bank, busy and extremely flourishing. As our
photograph shows we have an extremely attractive staff at this branch and
there is plenty of evidence to show that they are as efficient as they are
personable.
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