Second floor, soft furnishing workrooms
Nearly all of the second floor of the Kinghams building was dedicated to the soft furnishing workroom. Here customers’ curtains were made and bespoke cushions and furniture covered. Long benches, can be seen in the photographs, covered with material and machines. At one side of the workroom was the office.
The rest of the second floor was a mixture of hanging and packing area; with stockrooms for various departments and a room allocated to the Committee for Claims.
One room was used as a repository for three part bills, which were copies of customers transactions. This was the method of storing them before computerisation. It took up a lot of space!
I like the humorous graffiti inside the goods lift – ‘Maximum permitted toad’ (load) and ‘Bullfrog woz ‘ere.’ I wonder who was Bullfrog?
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The ladder to the right of the picture gave access to the larger of the two goods lifts.
The carpet workroom was also on this floor. The cage to the left of the picture used to house perfumery, or as it was sometimes referred to ‘Smelly‘ stock. Everything from hair spray to soap, and toothpaste to deodorant! The ladder to the right of the picture gave access to the second, smaller goods lift motor room. You can just make out the doors to the lift behind the stock cage (left centre of picture).
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