High Street Shops

Sir: What an interesting and revealing article (“The Editor’s Letter”, Winter 2016) dealing with the closing of the shops with which we have all been familiar during our lives.

I well remember when Lewis’s opened in Leeds. I was taken by my grandmother by double-decker bus from Wrenthorpe, near Wakefield, for their exhibition of a small aircraft in which a then-famous pilot had made a return flight to Australia. Grandma paid sixpence so that I could climb some steps and peer down into the cockpit. I cannot recall the name of the intrepid airman, but I do recall that the plane was red in colour. Many people queued out onto the pavement for this event. Going to Lewis’s was always a great treat and only happened during school holidays. — JONNI

STRATTON-BROOK, EGREMONT, CUMBERLAND.

Sir: Reading about the department stores which are no longer around reminded me of an incident during the war. My mother had taken us into Coventry and we were in Owen Owen when an air-raid siren went off. All the customers were ushered into the basement for the next hour or so until the all-clear. The next day whilst we were at home in Tile Hill another air-raid occurred and Owen Owen got hit and several people in the basement were killed with others hurt. — RITA

BULLEN (née BARNARD), SOUTH GRAFTON, NSW, AUSTRALIA.