Bristol Then & Now

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 opened 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.