The owner of an iconic Belfast toy shop has opened up on the honour of being able to run "the city's answer to Hamley's."
David Crowe opened the doors to Leisureworld on Queen Street on September 9, 1976. The family-run business went on to open a further two branches of the shop over the years, one in Lisburn and another in Derry, before closing in April 1998.
However, our memories of the shop live on with David saying he's amazed to see the happiness Leisureworld continues to bring to the people of Northern Ireland 24 years after closing.
Read more: The Belfast toy shop we wish was still open
David's family had roots in the hospitality trade. For many years, David's father, John, operated a dance hall on Queen Street in Belfast called Romano's and one on the seafront in Bangor called Milano's.
But the Troubles and enduring difficulties with licensing legislation led to the decline of the once-thriving dance hall era across Northern Ireland. The demise of the dance hall scene in Belfast, however, meant there was now a prime city centre spot for a new business to open in.
"So all of a sudden, we had this building on Queen Street sitting there not doing a great deal," David explained to Belfast Live.
"My brother-in-law Brian Lowry and I decided to open Leisureworld on the ground floor of this building. There was model shop that used to be three doors down.
"We went and approached the manager there, a very nice gentleman called Des Taggart, we brought him on board as our main man, then we opened Leisureworld on September 9, 1976. We saw an opening in Northern Ireland as there was no great toy shop. At that time, we just saw an opportunity to bring Hamleys to Belfast.
"The best thing about working at Leisureworld was the friendship and the joy we had with the whole team. It was a family. We embraced it as being a family, for joy, for toys."
Starting off as a small family-run business, the shop soon began to grow in size, going from around 4,000 sq ft to 24,000 sq ft. But they had a "major issue" at that time, due to the shop's previous life as a dance hall.
David said: "Ballrooms back in those days had huge big springs underneath them, you got a huge spanner that was about five feet high, you had to open up the floor, and tighten up the springs.
"Otherwise, if someone danced on the floor or marched onto it, the floor and the shelves would wobble and the boxes would fall off. We can laugh at it now, but it wasn't easy having to deal with it back then!
"People would try and go around the back where the bandstand was, because they had written their initials on the wall. The shop had a curved balcony on the first floor, so if you were upstairs you could look down and see it all - it was really something else."
An important part of the job for David and the team at Leisureworld was to always focus on the shopping experience, not simply picking up a box and buying, but letting kids have a look and play.
For them, experiencing the atmosphere of Leisureworld was always half the fun. They would even have famous characters stopping by the shop to meet the children.
"It was important for us to always have the toys out on display," David added. "We employed someone who would just do displays - window displays and displays through the store. We would display as much as we could.
"It's so that kids could play, and touch and feel the toys - that's what it's all about. I have great memories of Star Wars. Darth Vader came to the shop, but he was sick, so I had to stand in for him.
"Darth Vader is about 7ft tall, so when you're inside the suit, you're looking out through a little mesh around his chest height. You have the sound generator to make all his noises, and you would walk around the shop in this very heavy suit. I did that and also dressed up as Ken for Barbie, she was a model who arrived in a convertible pink Volkswagen."
Another well-known aspect of Leisureworld was they always had the best toys, anything you could ever imagine. This meant they stocked all the latest trends and crazes.
As David recalls, they would often have "screaming and fighting ladies in the shop" when new crazes came to town. But one stands out for him - Cabbage Patch dolls in the 1980s.
"And I mean, they were really fighting, trying to tear each other's hair out trying to get their hands on a Cabbage Patch doll," he laughed.
But the big show in town every year was Christmas and the run-up. David said they would typically do half a year's business in the six week run up, which could be chaotic, but it led to many happy memories.
Nothing could stop the team at this time of year - not even five fire bombs that closed a third of the shop just weeks before Christmas during The Troubles.
David said: " It was devastating to get the phone call, but we had two-thirds of the place back open within four days - Christmas was not going to stop. Christmas was a big job for us.
"We would buy the toys in October and November for the following year, the big ones, the Barbies and that sort of thing. The staff all knew what the big toy the following Christmas was going to be. They started coming in from February and March.
"Another great thing we did was we ran a Christmas club, where you could come in and select items off the shelf throughout the year, you would pay it off weekly or monthly, and we would keep them in black bin bags with a number on them and store them. In all the years we did it, I don't think we lost or screwed up any presents, which still amazes me.
"I remember going to Robb's Department Store to see Santa when I was a kid. The canvas behind him was on a roller, so it gave you the impression of moving. I thought Leisureworld needed Santa Claus.
"So we got Santa, I built a space rocket, and got a train built on old springs, we used old Ulsterbus seats, made portholes in the side. Kids went in one side into the rocket, you release the brake and it vibrated, so you thought you were flying into space.
"After the motor stopped working on the third day, somebody manually shook the rocket. You get into the rocket, you go up and see Santa, you get your present and a photo, but nobody ever asked why you didn't go back in the space rocket - you just went out the exit door. Not one kid or adult asked us who came up with Santa Claus on a rocket.
"There was one toy you always knew would cause a problem, so we would hold some of it over. After Christmas, we had our customer service department - which was myself and my brother Michael. We would normally have a queue for two or three days.
"We would put tubs of Quality Street on the counter of the customer service desk, as if you give someone a Quality Street, a toffee, it's very hard for them to complain with a mouth full of toffee!
"We would always have replacements for problem toys. It all came from Santa, we were only Santa's helpers. The stories we had to tell to some kids were quite unbelievable. We would have to say sometimes Santa would know things might go wrong, so he would leave us things here to replace them and make it right. We were just Santa's repair angels!"
Years on from Leisureworld's closure, David said it's a lovely feeling to know the shop still remains in the hearts and memories of people all around Northern Ireland.
"It really was a great place, I don't know if there'll be somewhere like it again," he said.
"It's just unbelievable that there's still a great following for it, and it's great to hear people's memories of the shop. It really was a fabulous place."
Nowadays, the family are still keeping the city entertained. David has been working alongside his son, Henry, for the past few years in developing ScrapYard Golf, which opened earlier this year in Glengormley.
"One of the nicest things was working with my son. My wife lost her husband and her son when we took on the project, as we were there seven days a week, 8am to 8pm," David added.
"The enjoyment I had from father and son bonding was fantastic. We had great fun dreaming up ideas.
"Henry was buying props from over a year ago, things like ambulances to putt through don't just show up! We're getting geared up now to turn it into a spooktacular adventure over Halloween."
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