George Edwin Lewis started trading in 1893 in his shop in Warwick Road, Acocks Green, Birmingham.  This picture taken around that time shows the shop name as Geo.E.Lewis, and over the shop it shows "The Bazaar & Library".  George lived over the shop with his family as is recorded as living there in the 1901 cencus, with his wife, son & daughter.

The business has always traded in and around Birmingham. In the 1920's the business became limited and was then known as Geo.E.Lewis & Son Ltd., with Aubrey eventually taking over the running of the business.

George E. Lewis developed a keen interest in photography and started taking photographs of local places of interest, and having them made into postcards.  A great many of his postcards were published and are often found today in collectors albums. The photograph at the top of this page was one of his postcards, and this print was taken from the original "Glass Negative" over 100 years later!

The picture here on the right was of the premises in Dudley Street (no longer there today). The view of this building was incorporated into the company letterhead of the day. The letterhead showed the company traded as Wholesale Stationers, with the address 60-62 Dudley Street, Birmingham 5.

At this stage a noticeable inclusion was the "LEWISON" logo. Lewison became a registered trade brand, and became widely used on stationery products, from packets of envelopes to sealing wax!

In the late 1950's the company moved from Dudley Street to Inge Street - (opposite the Birmingham Hippodrome - and now redeveloped as the Arcadian centre).

Business started flourishing and a move was made to a larger warehouse at 220 Gooch Street  in the early 60's.

During this period John Lewis (Grandson of founder) was running the business. Eventually John was joined by his eldest son George, and his youngest son Stephen in 1978.

1978 saw the business move yet again into a much larger warehouse literally around the corner, which offered under cover parking, and vastly greater space.

The business continued to thrive and eventually merged with a local competitor in 2003. Regretfully this merger did not produce the benefits that it was hoped, and Stephen Lewis together with his son Russell left to start the next stage in the business, and formed Toystat.

Toystat therefore is a relatively new business, but with a very long history!