The Yorkshire Film Archive collects, preserves, and shows film made in, or about Yorkshire. Our collections are non-fiction, dating from the 1890s to the present day, and providing a rich and visually compelling record of all aspects of lives, cultures, landscape, industries, major events and everyday activities, many of which are available to watch, free of charge, on our website.
This film is currently unavailable

Construction of Lewis's, Leeds
As the Chrysler Building was going up in New York in 1930, Leeds is putting up its new Lewis’s department store, with construction workers similarly balancing on steel girders.
From the collection of:

Overview
Despite the Wall Street crash just three months earlier, Lewis's goes ahead with building an impressive department store in Leeds, putting to work some of the growing unemployed. It’s a wonderful document of construction from the time, filming the entire building project from beginning to end: with large sections of steel frame arriving by horse drawn carts and not a safety helmet in sight. One shot is taken from inside a bucket as it gets transported on an overhead pulley.
Lewis's announced their plans for a new store in Leeds in October 1928, ahead of the depression that was to settle over the US and Europe. On completion, ahead of schedule, it was the largest department store outside London, though its upper floors weren’t finished until 1938. On the day of its opening, by the Lord Mayor on September 17th, 1932, over 100,000 people visited the store. It had 157 different departments, selling almost everything, and saw escalators arrive in Leeds for the first time. With inspiration from American stores, it had 10,000 square yards of floor marble and 400 square yards of wall marble. Its innovative Aerodome floors, designed by Sir Edwin Airey, apparently saved 4000 tons of steel.
Related

Spy Ring Spy Ring
1965 1 mins Location: Leeds
There is never a dull moment in this International Spy Game of foreign spies competing to trick their way into sixteen different embassies.

Yorkshire Post: Sports Fan Yorkshire Post: Sports Fan
1973 1 mins Location: Leeds
An Olympic Games hopeful bundles into a Leeds newsagents, only to be met by a new shopkeeper from The Smoke, bemused by the Yorkshire Post.

The Big Country The Big Country
Promotional 1970 16 mins Location: Newcastle upon Tyne
Tuning into the biggest consumer market for television advertising in Britain with Trident TV.

Moorhouse Lemon Cheese Moorhouse Lemon Cheese
1966 1 mins Location: Leeds
Butter, eggs, and lemons, what else could better evoke the healthiness of the countryside than this delicious traditional desert topping?

Railroader Railroader
1964 1 mins Location: Leeds
The great Western way of dog eat dog as opponents try to dynamite each other in their pursuit of what really matters in life, railways and money.

Yorkshire Post Advert Yorkshire Post Advert
1970 0 mins Location: Leeds
Headlining with the expulsion of South Africa from the Olympics in 1970, the Yorkshire Post sells itself as much more than a local paper.

New Perspectives: Pusher New Perspectives: Pusher
Short documentary 2025 5 mins
Noah Bell of Northumbria University explains why you should seize the chance to watch Nicolas Winding Refn's debut.

Twin Peaks star Kyle MacLachlan on working with David Lynch - Q&A Twin Peaks star Kyle MacLachlan on working with David Lynch - Q&A
Inside Film 2025 38 mins
Kyle MacLachlan talks to BFI CEO Ben Roberts about working with David Lynch on the legendary series Twin Peaks.

On Falling - Exclusive Q&A On Falling - Exclusive Q&A
Inside Film 2025 30 mins
Writer-director Laura Carreira talks to Nia Childs about her debut feature, On Falling.

Layla - Exclusive Q&A Layla - Exclusive Q&A
Short interview 2025 27 mins
Writer, director and performer Amrou Al-Kadhi talks to Rico Johnson-Sinclair about their debut feature.

All We Imagine As Light - Exclusive Q&A All We Imagine As Light - Exclusive Q&A
Short interview 2025 28 mins
Payal Kapadia discusses her Cannes prize-winning and Bafta-nominated drama with Ashanti Omkar.

Khichdi Khichdi
Animation & Artists Moving Image 2023 16 mins
The interwoven stories of four best friends who reunite in the UK, thirty-five years after training together as nurses during their teens in Ferozepur, Punjab.