Schofields
- chameleon
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oldleedsman wrote: kierentc wrote: was the store in two halves which were connected someway in the middle, or did i dream that?i remember the toy floor too, the walls at the side of the esculator had cartoony pictures of toys and orange walls or something. it made it dead exciting as you went up. i too was easily pleased Yes, I remember the 2 bits as well - there was some sort of high bridge/link to the newer section off the back by Lands Lane. And what you may not know is that there was a basement tunnel conecting the two for staff to travel too an fro.
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- liits
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Brandy wrote: remember the doorway from the headrow side that had that constant stream of warm air blowing from large fans below?? The constant stream of hot air was a "Sulzer Air Curtain". It blew hot air from above and below. Apart from that, my two memories of Schofields were [very vaguely] my parents buying a carpet from Schofields which they paid off weekly, and me, rubbing boot polish into said carpet while my Dad was polishing his shoes in the kitchen. I still bear the scars of that little miss-hap! and a punter in the pub [Manston] who was working on the Schofields Centre, recording a message to be played on the fire evacuation alarm "Fire! Run for your lives". Apparently, it didnt matter to the fire officer what the message was, so long as there was a message played when the alarm went off.
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liits wrote: Brandy wrote: remember the doorway from the headrow side that had that constant stream of warm air blowing from large fans below?? The constant stream of hot air was a "Sulzer Air Curtain". It blew hot air from above and below. Apart from that, my two memories of Schofields were [very vaguely] my parents buying a carpet from Schofields which they paid off weekly, and me, rubbing boot polish into said carpet while my Dad was polishing his shoes in the kitchen. I still bear the scars of that little miss-hap! and a punter in the pub [Manston] who was working on the Schofields Centre, recording a message to be played on the fire evacuation alarm "Fire! Run for your lives". Apparently, it didnt matter to the fire officer what the message was, so long as there was a message played when the alarm went off. i could always imagine women's dresses getting blown up 'Marilyn Monroe style loli remember having my very first serious crush on a beautiful girl from the perfume dept in there aaaaaaaaaaaaahh happy days!id remember coming home smelling like a hookers handbag(according to our mother lol )personally i think that 'thing' built to replace it is nothing more than a soul-less blott on the landscape.
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I agree with the souless blot, Brandy! I used to go to Schofields a lot in the 70's with my mum. I remember the assistants in the ladies hoisery dept and thinking they were like Are You Being Served characters! I remember all the dummy hands, displaying leather gloves! They used to fascinate me as a kid!I used to love the "box column" window displays too; those columns had character!We used to get treated to a meal, by my grandmother, quite regularly at the A La Carte restaurant. All silver service, waitresses in black and white uniforms, with little frilly white hats. The mixed grill was gorgeous! You got kidneys - the lot! Oh happy days!
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kierentc wrote: was the store in two halves which were connected someway in the middle, or did i dream that?i remember the toy floor too, the walls at the side of the esculator had cartoony pictures of toys and orange walls or something. it made it dead exciting as you went up. i too was easily pleased As I recall the floors on the two halves of the building didn't "tally up" on every floor. There were floors where you couldn't get to the rear half from the front, and if I am correct, one floor in the rear half where to get down to ground level you had first to go up and cross over to the front half.I also remember the coffee shop where you bought a coffee in cup with either blue or brown decoration, one of them cost tuppence or so more but got everlasting refills at your table !
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Schofields a la Carte restaurant was the last word in refinement - beautiful light green carpet, fine quality linen, cutlery and china, and wonderful food and service - and not unduly expensive at all. It was reached by the most fascinating aged lift with manual gates (Lifts have always been yet another of my transportation fascinations) operated as always by an elderly "driver" with a fair degree of skill in "landing" level with the floor at the first attempt. You were then greeted by a most dignified mature lady, elegant and silver haired, who would ask how many seats required and would then by equally elegant "tic tac" relay this information to an immaculate lounge suit clad chap at the far end of the room - he was a war veteran with an artificial arm and leather glove - who would miraculously find a place where there appeared to be none. Not surprisingly he later became one of those impeccably uniformed messengers who could be seen around the City as they did their work.
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Something has definately been lost when the likes of Lewis' and Schofields closed. We have 5 shopping malls int he city centre at present and all of them are pretty grim and sadly the Merrion Centre is probably the best behind Victoria Quarter / County Arcade.Are department stores lost forever to out of town retail parks? Is proper service lost forever to self service and fasr food?I think Marks & Sparks and BHS canreverse this trent especially in the cafe's. They are already paying slovenly girls to slouch around and ignore customersthey might as well train them to do a job properly.Harvey Nicholls food floor is pretty good but certianly not for those with a light pocket.
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Reginal Perrin wrote: Something has definately been lost when the likes of Lewis' and Schofields closed. We have 5 shopping malls int he city centre at present and all of them are pretty grim and sadly the Merrion Centre is probably the best behind Victoria Quarter / County Arcade.Harvey Nicholls food floor is pretty good but certianly not for those with a light pocket. I couldn't sgree more - I quite often go in the Victoria Quarter and I just can't credit why anyone would pay nigh on £5 for a bowl of soup - to be consumed behind scant glass screens with all the passers by "gawping" over the top.Just to divert sllightly from Leeds, but by way of illustration, I was in Doncaster yesterday and looked around the new Frenchgate Centre.The place is immaculately clean and well maintained BUT quite simply "bitty" and "disconnected" and entirely without an iota of atmosphere or character - just row after row of the familiar High street names which we see everywhere. At least to be fair most of the major Leeds malls do have an integrated feel about them if nothing else.
There's nothing like keeping the past alive - it makes us relieved to reflect that any bad times have gone, and happy to relive all the joyful and fascinating experiences of our own and other folks' earlier days.