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 part of Free

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.

Over There Over There
Animation & Artists Moving Image 2024 4 mins
A jobless woman sells her body to enter the digital world and seemingly thrive, but soon she discovers something unsettling about her new existence.

CHECK PLEASE CHECK PLEASE
Action and Adventure 2024 10 mins
Dinner for two turns deadly as a couple fight over who pays.

Red Lace Red Lace
Thriller 2024 11 mins
A young man enters a mysterious bakery where he must complete a rite of initiation to join a strange community of cake lovers.

Unrecognized Character Detected Unrecognized Character Detected
Animation & Artists Moving Image 2024 9 mins
Two alien organisms engage in a playful conflict across diverse territories, but all may not be as it seems.

REBIRTH REBIRTH
Drama 2023 4 mins Silent
A once vibrant neighbourhood descends into chaos after a tragedy in the community.

Your Voice Only Your Voice Only
Documentary 2023 14 mins
A Sudanese man working in an isolated horse stable in Dahban, Saudi Arabia tries to contact his family after not being able to call them in three months.