Lewis's Department Store
By Heather Marshall
Lewis's Department Store, or the ‘Poly’ as it was affectionately called by my generation, was one of the best stores in Glasgow. It had seven floors with around 1400 staff and was loved by all Glaswegians. The store is a category B listed building. The name the ‘Poly’ came from the original old store, which was called Lewis's Royal Polytechnic. In 1915, the original Royal Polytechnic even had a luxurious Byzantine smoking room for the husbands of lady shoppers, where they could sit and have tea and smoke in comfort!
I have so many vivid memories of the Poly - the cosmetic and perfumery department at Christmas time, which was so beautifully decorated and had gift boxes that you never see any more, from lavish sets with every imaginable toiletry to the humble box of bath cubes! As the store was always very well heated, the exotic perfume smells that floated out the doors onto Argyle Street on a cold winter’s day were wonderful. The assistants on these counters were very glamorous and to me, as a child, they looked like film stars! On Christmas Eve you could see many gentlemen desperately trying to purchase what they thought would be the most acceptable gift box for wives or girlfriends. The windows then were full of manikins and I loved to stand and watch the window dressers dressing these dummies and decorating the windows to reflect the seasons and the fashions of the day. It was a real skill being able to dress the windows the way they did, all the year round. The Christmas windows were amazing and must have taken hours of work to decorate and, in those days, you went into town simply to look at the windows in Lewis's and other big department stores, which was a full day out!
The food hall in the basement had unbelievable choices of cold meats, cheeses, pickles, pies, and other yummy things, some from Europe which were really unusual. I always remember the big red meat-slicing machines that the assistants used with such speed, that I always expected to find a finger in amongst my Mother's bacon or cold ham! They had amazing chocolate boxes at Christmas time and Easter, some with little drawers that pulled open with fabulous sweets inside and I used to be really impatient for my Mother to eat the chocolates so I could have the box to keep things in! You could spend some time sampling some of the meats, cheeses and pastries, which were displayed on plates with little cocktail sticks, so you could help yourself. The food hall was a favourite destination for many office staff in their lunch breaks for a tasty treat. The food hall also had live cooking displays to encourage customers to buy the latest delicacy and cooking tool.
Another memory was the exciting Santa's Grotto, complete with elves, fairies and, of course, a very jolly Santa, too. It was a magical place to fire a child’s imagination. Beautifully decorated, and the staff had wonderful costumes that made it all seem so real to me, as a child, and no matter how simple the gift was that Santa gave me, it was treasured as being so special. In the 1950s, Santa used to come up the River Clyde on a boat, with ‘Santa is on his way to Lewis's’ written on it, then be driven to the store on a horse and carriage and lucky children could have breakfast with him on his arrival at the store. The entrance to Santa's grotto had various Christmas scenes, so you were never bored while waiting in the queue to see the man himself, and he was always a very authentic figure who dealt with each and every child with patience and affection. It really was one of the highlights of Christmas being taken to Lewis's to see Santa.
The store had wonderful wooden escalators that took you to each floor. The Poly was the first store in Glasgow to have these moving staircases. I recall being quite scared to go on it when I was a child. Every floor held a wonderful selection of goods to please even the most discerning of shopper. The staff were all very smartly dressed, the men in suits and the ladies in black skirts with a white blouse and black cardigan, and as you got off the escalator you would be greeted and asked how you could be helped. The millinery department had every kind of hat you could think of, along with scarves and gloves in every colour to match the hat you might want to purchase. The haberdashery department had bales and bales of lovely fabric and Butterick patterns of all descriptions for dressmakers, and the bales of material were pulled down and the fabric measured and cut with such precision for the pattern the customer had chosen - another skill in itself you no longer see. I recall being taken there when I was about 13 and quite a chubby child. My Mother proceeded to ask the assistant if they had patterns for a plump child! I was so embarrassed and I think the lovely assistant could see I was close to tears. In the clothing department you could pick from a huge selection of dresses, coats, and costumes as they were called then, which was a jacket and skirt in matching fabric, and there were ladies with tape measures round their neck ready and waiting to measure you or arrange to have what you purchased altered by a seamstress if need be. In those days you could go into the Poly and come out with a complete outfit from the skin out, and have the bag and shoes to match with no problem at all!
You could also buy household goods, china, kitchenware and linens to suit all tastes and budget. They had their own bakery and cafes, so you could take a break from your day's shopping and have a snack or a meal, which was a real treat. The store closed in 1991 and was then taken over by Debenhams till they closed in 2010.
It's a sad reflection that most of our shopping can now be done online and these wonderful stores are just part of Glasgow's history now.
Additional images courtesy of the Robert Pool Glasgow Collection
