Work on Primark's new Bristol home reveals building's past
The flagship store, which is due to open in August, stands on the Horsefair in the old House of Fraser building. But as external work on the building continues, shoppers have been given a glimpse of the first retail giant to call the building home – Lewis's.
Back in the 1950s, Bristolians watched as work took place on two department stores built side-by-side to put the city on the map as the region's top shopping centre.
There was the ocean liner-shaped Lewis's, thought to be the first store to have an escalator and complete with a roof garden with views over the Haymarket, and its huge neighbour Jones, now Debenhams, which was built after the store in Wine Street and High Street was lost in the blitz of November 1940.
Lewis's was a success until the late Seventies when it sold out to John Lewis. In 1980 the company took over the 17,000 sq ft premises, followed by Bentalls and then House of Fraser in March 2001.
The new Primark store, which will open in August, hopes to create 500 jobs. The store will have 90,000 sq ft of floorspace, making it one of the chain's biggest shops in the UK.
Broadmead manager John Hirst said he was looking forward to the store opening its doors and "a new chapter" in the history of the building.
"The building has always had a special interest for me as it was opened around about the time I was born.
"It was built for Lewis's and really was the start of Bristol's retail future. There aren't many department stores in the country that I am aware of that are that size and quality and have had so many different stores in them.
"It really shows the changing face of retail, when House of Fraser moved to Cabot Circus, we had the issue of having someone new in to maintain Bristol's retail position. Then the deal was done with Primark.
"It will be Primark's second biggest store in the UK. It will give us a boost down the western end of Broadmead.
"At the moment the Primark store we have in Bristol is a pimple on the mountain in relation to what we will get in the future.
"As Primark have said this is the equivalent of moving from a shed into a mansion and I look forward to the next chapter in the building's history."
In the 1950s the Evening Post carried regular reports as the Lewis's building rose and rose and when they opened at the end of the decade, Broadmead was well under way.
Like television's Grace Brothers, the £3m store sold virtually everything – from washing machines and Wilton carpets to wool and wine gums.
Most of the departments were self-selection – a new shopping concept 50 years ago. Customers queued all night for the opening – which was half an hour late – with an estimated 100,000 people swarming through the store's 200 departments on the first day alone.
The first customer was a man who bought a pair of socks for six shillings and 11 pence.
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