Overview

The legendary Lewis’s store in Liverpool is a landmark that retains the affections of the city. Once a famed emporium of glamour and spectacle which drew crowds from miles around and became the subject of urban myths, the store was part of a retail phenomenon that changed the way we shop and the architectural landscape of our cities: a world in miniature, where shoppers could buy everything under one roof and the staff included up to four generations of families. This book contains remarkable photographs taken on the ‘lost’ fifth floor of Lewis’s by photographer Stephen King. They capture the remarkable history and former glory.

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9781846312465

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The imposing Lewis's store in Liverpool has a hidden secret its time-capsule 1950s fifth floor, sealed off since the 1980s. Photographer King records it in all its dusty glory. A gem of a book and an ideal present. RIBA Journal 20100401 Lewis's Fifth Floor: A Department Story contributes to this emerging body of scholarship that combines fine art methods with field-based practices. This blurs the boundaries between the humanities and the arts and makes a necessary contribution to the field of urban folklore. Leonardo Reviews 20100730

The imposing Lewis's store in Liverpool has a hidden secret - its time-capsule 1950s fifth floor, sealed off since the 1980s. Photographer King records it in all its dusty glory. A gem of a book and an ideal present. RIBA Journal 20100401 Lewis's Fifth Floor: A Department Story contributes to this emerging body of scholarship that combines fine art methods with field-based practices. This blurs the boundaries between the humanities and the arts and makes a necessary contribution to the field of urban folklore. Leonardo Reviews 20100730

The imposing Lewis's store in Liverpool has a hidden secret - its time-capsule 1950s fifth floor, sealed off since the 1980s. Photographer King records it in all its dusty glory. A gem of a book and an ideal present. RIBA Journal 20100401 Lewis's Fifth Floor: A Department Story contributes to this emerging body of scholarship that combines fine art methods with field-based practices. This blurs the boundaries between the humanities and the arts and makes a necessary contribution to the field of urban folklore. Leonardo Reviews 20100730 Lewis's Fifth Floor: A Department Story is a photo book in which photographer Stephen King revisits the abandoned fifth floor of the landmark British department store Lewis's in Liverpool. The fifth floor of the store was reopened to public in the 1950s after the Second World War and was finally shut in the 1980s. During that time the fifth floor was a vibrant place of work, with a tightly knit working culture; and the photo book revisits those years by juxtaposing interviews of employees who worked there with photographs of the abandoned floor taken in 2009. The book is replete with sensorial evocations of memories of the fifth floor in terms of its daily rituals, routines, sounds, textures, colors and smells. King's compositions are particularly striking in graphic qualities, complementing the art deco aesthetic of the fifth floor. Subtle camera angulation and the use of lighting emphasize the floor's art deco color scheme. On the color of King's photographs, Deborah Mulhern states in her essay at the start of the photobook: One of the most striking things about Stephen's photographs are the colours: bold and unapologetic aquamarine and air force blue, maroon and mustard yellow, as bright and arresting as a restored Renaissance painting (p. 12). King photographed the floor in early 2009. The effect of the winter light from that time of the year, cold and flattening, mixes with the art deco colors, resulting in a specific rendition of British urban landscape. This serves to highlight the difference between the colors associated with art deco in the U.K. and those elsewhere, for example, the West Coast of the United States, where the movement was influential. Mulhern historicizes the color scheme, adding: The 1950s were a difficult but also hopeful time for people emerging from the restrictions and rationing of wartime, living and working surrounded by bombsites, as many people were in Liverpool. The designs of the 1950s were an attempt to banish the drab and down-at-heel and celebrate the actual and metaphorical introduction of colour into people's lives (p. 12). Mulhern points out that the fifth floor's interior designs were influenced by the 1951 Festival of Britain, wherein: Designers looked to science and technology for inspiration and the designs for furniture, furnishings and fittings were based on magnified atoms and molecules and the crystal line structures of minerals and metals (p. 13). King's photographs delve into this theme, bringing forth the influence of scientific imagination and its amalgamation in departmental store design. The book can be roughly classified into two sections. One contains photographs that concentrate on physical spaces of the fifth floor, such as a cafeteria, two restaurants and a hairdressing salon. The second section contains photographic portraits of former employees. Most of these photographs were taken by positioning the subjects in their workplace, often literally where they stood during the workday. Most portraits are full length, with the aim of situating the subject's body within the spatial context of the store. The direct gaze of the subjects toward the camera is complemented by interview quotations through which the subjects introduce themselves and share memories of working at the store. It is evident that the interviews from which the quotations have been selected were conducted in a conversational manner that facilitated spontaneity and intimacy between interviewers and subjects, allowing the latter to share their personal experiences, impressions and relationships with their workplace. The employee recollections contrast sharply with the ghostlike atmosphere of the abandoned floor in the photographs. This creates a powerful effect of humanizing space-reducing the banality of the fifth floor's present condition and inducing a human element within its narrative. The employees who worked at Lewis's remember there being a distinct working culture at the department store. Interestingly, numerous interviewees draw a comparison between the fifth-floor working culture and the famous BBC comedy series Are You Being Served, which ran from the early 1970s to the mid-1980s. Often times employees started at Lewis's during their teens and many had more than one family member already working at the store. The working atmosphere at Lewis's was familial and at the same time formal and cordial. The interviews point to a consumer culture that arose specifically in post-war Britain and was shaped by department stores such as Lewis's. Mulhern situates this within a process of democratising luxury : The obligation to buy upon entering a store fizzled, as did the assumption that working class customers would necessarily haggle (p. 12). This is crucial in historicizing British retail practices and culture that allowed for the working classes a claim in the luxury consumer goods sector. The British shopping experience was shaped to be more inclusive rather than exclusionary, and this is evident in mass-media representations of shopping in British film, which present class dynamics that are quite distinct from those manifest in shopping experiences depicted in Hollywood films. Over the years Lewis's has lost much of its appeal, and City Council plans are underway to incorporate it into a shopping and leisure complex. English Heritage listed the Lewis's building as Grade II in 2007 and attempts are underway to preserve the sculpture, decor and artworks in it. British consumer culture too has changed dramatically. Under the present economic crisis, stately firms such as Lewis's are clearly becoming a 19thand 20th-century phenomenon. Presently city centers across Britain are dotted with masses of concrete being mobilized to form inert, homogenous and depersonalized retail complexes. Many artistic projects documenting the rapidly changing cityscapes of Britain have gained momentum over the last two years. Lewis's Fifth Floor: A Department Story contributes to this emerging body of scholarship combining fine art methods with fieldbased practices. This blurs the boundaries between the humanities and the arts and makes a necessary contribution to the field of urban folklore. Leonardo Review 2010

Author Information

Stephen King is an award-winning photographer. Deborah Mulhearn edited the acclaimed Mersey Minis series.

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