No childhood Christmas was complete without a visit to this lost Manchester grotto

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

For generations of kids, Christmas just wasn't Christmas without a visit to see Santa Claus. In Manchester, the easiest way to do this was to queue up and see him before the big day at one of the city's department stores.

Now Manchester has had a good few iconic department stores over the years - Kendals, Paulden's, and Henry's to name a few. But one long lost department store that was a fixture on Market Street for over 120-years is perhaps remembered best for its 'magical' Christmas grottos.

Lewis's was one of the first department stores in Manchester. It opened on the corner of Piccadilly Gardens in 1877 and was the first Lewis's outside of Liverpool where the company was founded.

Not only was it one of the first, it must go down as the city's most spectacular and innovative department store. The Manchester store included a full scale ballroom on the fifth floor.