Photographs
Shops
ADDLESTONE, Sur. Co-op. "I well remember that money system, it was also in the Co-op at Addlestone, Surrey. At about four years of age I thought there was a little man inside it who went and got the change." (Janice posting to GEN-TRIVIA-ENG-L list, 6/7/99)
ALFRISTON,
E. Sx. Alfriston Post Office. Not in original location. Lamson Rapid Wire system with two stations
installed in 1980s. Photograph in Patricia Barry and Peter Longstaff-Tyrrell: Aspects of Alfriston. S.B.Publications, 2006, p.26.
ARUNDEL, W. Sx. Harringtons. Cash carrier in 1950s. (Lorna)
BECKENHAM, Kent. Adams (drapers), High Street. The money went whizzing overhead on a wire. (Book on old Beckemham)
BECKENHAM, Kent. A grocers, Shortlands. "It seems but yesterday that a grocery shop in the main street was so cool and dark .. and change given by means of a rattling overhead railway, on whose wires metal cannisters were catapulted from counter to cashier in a flash and shot back, the container being unscrewed to extract the money and receipt." John Wagstaff and Doris Pullen. Beckenham: an anthology of local history to celebrate the golden jubilee of Beckenham's charter of incorporation, 1935. (London: Historical Association, 1984) p.49
BOGNOR REGIS, W. Sx. Co-op. Cash carrier in 1950s. (Terry Shearing)
BOGNOR REGIS, W. Sx. George W. Staley. "Overhead canisters which were used to propel your money to the cashier." Shop opened in 1888, became F.J.Bobby in 1959 and was modernised in late 1970s. (Bognor Local History website)
BRIGHTLINGSEA, Essex. International stores (or Co-op?). Wire system. (Peter Moon)
BRIGHTON, E. Sx. Co-op, Fiveways. Wire system in 1950s. (Richard Scullion)
BRIGHTON, E. Sx. Co-op, London Road. Pneumatic-tube system in 1940s/50s. (John Trendall)
BRIGHTON, E. Sx. Co-op (grocery), Patcham. Wire system in 1940s/50s. Customers put the money in the carrier themselves so that the staff handling food didn't have to. Cashier was elevated in a glass box. (John Trendall)
BRIGHTON, E. Sx. Hanningtons. "The cashier system .. dated from the twenties. There was only one till in the store,and one cashier, who was installed in a booth on the ground floor with a shiny brass cash register... Beside the cashier's booth was a vacuum tube for use when a certain amount of money had accumulated in the booth, or when more change was needed. A brass container was sucked away to the basement where accountancy staff dealt with the request." (Bond, Sidonie. Hanningtons: a brief history 1808-2001. Seaford: SB Publications, 2002, pp.47-48)
BRIGHTON, E. Sx. Hunters, Preston Circus. Pneumatic tube system. (Carol Catterall)
BRIGHTON, E. Sx. Lea & Co., Western Road. Wire system. (Mr Aubrey)
BRIGHTON, E. Sx. Leesons & Vokins, North Street. "Little boxes running on wires." (Roberts, Margery C. A time remembered. Brighton: Brighton & Hove Museums, 1998, p. 9)
BRIGHTON, E. Sx. Plumbers Roddis (drapers), Western Road. Wire system. (Mr Aubrey)
BRIGHTON, E. Sx. Staffords, Western Road. Wire system. (Elizabeth Garrett)
BRIGHTON, E. Sx. Wades (dept store), Western Road. Tube system in 1950s. (Gill Crowter and Charles Painter)
BROMLEY, Kent. Medhursts (now Allders). Overhead cash carrier system in 1950s. (S.Hennessy). No sign of it now.
CANTERBURY, Kent. Baldwins. Wire system. (Simply Whitstable Visitors Book, 17/6/06)
CANTERBURY, Kent. Deakins. "In 1973/4 the shop underwent considerable modernisation. The ground floor ceilings were lowered, this made for a warmer shop, but it also meant removing the cash railway system for which Deakins had been famous for many generations. (Deakins of Canterbury: the story of a Canterbury tailor & outfitter 1856-1991, p.14)
CANTERBURY, Kent. Lefevres (became Debenhams). "Lefevres, where my sisters worked, had the 'cash tubes'. These took the money away with a mighty swoosh... then returned the change with a thump!" (Simply Whitstable Visitors Book, 17/6/06). In use in 1970 ( Peter Mason).
CHATHAM, Kent. Churches. Cash Ball system installed about 1889. (Molly Proctor)
CHICHESTER, West Sx. Geerings drapers, North Street. Wire system. Shop sold 1950-51. (Edward Brown. Chichester in the 1950s. Chichester: E.B.Publications, 1996. p.26)
COULSDON, Sur. Pay 'n' Take grocery shop. Wire system in 1940s. (T.Hollobone)
CROYDON,
Sur. Allders, North End [of the High Street]. Allders is the third
largest department store in Britain. It still has a pneumatic tube system
with 42 terminals in working order and belt cash desk which was used for
emptying tills up to the Christmas period in 2005. See photographs
CROYDON, Sur. Draper Bros, Lower Church Street. "They had a machine and they put the money and the bill in there and pushed it round the shop overhead and a girl sat in a desk put in the change and sent it back to the assistant." (Shops and shopping 1920-1992, ed. May Johnson. Talking of Croydon, no.4. Croydon: Croydon Oral History Society, 1992, p.9)
CROYDON, Sur. Grants, High Street. Pneumatic tube system. Store is now a 'leisure complex'. Crystal Palace Football Club forum
CROYDON, Sur. Hewitts (school uniforms) 45-51 Church Street. Cash carrier in 1960s. (Peter Rowbottom)
CROYDON, Sur. Kennards. In 1973 changed to Debenhams. Lamson tube system. Twelve automatic belt cash desk stations were installed in 1906 and more later. There were 150 stations throughout the store. The carrier took 30 seconds from the most distant station. On the first day of the summer sale in 1923 over 10,000 cash transactions were handled. Photographs in Lovett. Information from Town and Country News, 6 Sep. 1929, also quoted in McInnes et al.
CROYDON, Sur. Pelton Bros, 40-44 High Street. Inside, as well as the powerful lifts commanding all floors, there was an inside tramway. (Views and Reviews, Croydon ca. 1897, p.22, quoted in McInnes et al.
DAGENHAM, Essex. Co-op, Martin's Corner. "I remember the little capsule flying across the ceiling in the co-op .. when I was a kid in the 60s." "Stavros-innit" posting to Daily Mail chat, 18/7/05
DARTFORD, Kent. Co-op. Pneumatic tube system. (Chris Baker)
DARTFORD, Kent. Kerrs, 6 High Street. Rapid Wire system. Installed in 1900. In use when I visited in September 1977. There were 6 stations - all straight runs. Shop closed in 1979 and part is now in Dartford Museum. Just before the shop closed, the BBC recorded it in action for their sound archives (Molly Proctor)
DARTFORD, Kent. Sherrys (later Rosebys), High Street. Pneumatic tube system. Dartford Museum has some parts. (Chris Baker)
DEAL, Kent. Baldwins. Rapid Wire system. (Molly Proctor)
DORKING, Sur. Degenhearts(?), South Street. Wire system. Cash office was upstairs. (Knowhere Noticeboard for Dorking)
DOVER, Kent. Co-op, Cherry Tree Avenue, Buckland. "I can well remember the store with the cashier up in a little cabin with the overhead money containers shooting acros the shop on wires." (Harman, Joe. My Dover. Dover: Riverdale Pubs, 2001, p.113)
EASTBOURNE, E. Sx. Bobbys (now Debenhams). Pneumatic tube system in 1950s. (Jaime)
EASTBOURNE, E. Sx. Co-op, Albert Parade, Old Town. Rapid Wire system in 1950s. (Jaime)
EAST GRINSTEAD, W. Sx. Co-op, London Road. Wire system. (Jean Craig)
EWELL, Sur. Co-op, Stoneleigh Broadway. "She frequented.. the Co-Op (Butchers and grocers) where cash was sent back and forth in wooden barrels to and from the cashier by means of an overhead railway." Epsom and Ewell History Reporter
FAVERSHAM, Kent. Childs (drapers), 12-15 Court Street. Rapid Wire system. Parts now on display at Fleur de Lis Heritage Museum. Closed in 1971. Some photographs in Peter Stevens "Child of Court Street" (Faversham Papers No. 76, 2001) "An Edwardian atmosphere, and even the overhead wire system taking cash and bills from the various departments to a central cash desk remains today." (Faversham Times, 6 Oct. 1971, p.1)
FAVERSHAM, Kent. Another drapers. "The firm I work for used to have one of those wire systems... A friend .. said the one at Childs the other drapers' shop was better, because the wires were longer!" (Carol in posting to GEN-TRIVIA-ENG-L list, 8/7/99)
FELTHAM, Middx. Sainsburys. Cash carrier. (Posting to uk.rec.subterranea newsgroup, 8/3/00)
FOLKESTONE, Kent. Co-op. Cash carrier. (Tony at Wilkinsons
GRAVESEND, Kent. Unknown dept. store. Wire system. See reminiscences
GRAYS THURROCK, Essex. Joyes Emporium, New Road. Wire system. The cash office was "a sort of cubicle with frosted glass" (RootsWeb.com website)
GUILDFORD, Surrey. Carling, Gill and Carling. Wire system in 1950s. (Rob Kilby)
HARPENDEN, Herts. A.Anscombe & Sons, Leyton Road. I visited in September 1977. Rapid Wire system. There were 6 stations - 1 upstairs served by a cash lift. It had been filmed for Anglia TV. "This England", Spring 1975 has photographs of cashier and service point. Also article by Eric Meadows in "Hertfordshire Countryside". The shop closed in 1981. Photograph of a carrier in Evans and Lawson.
HASTINGS, E.Sx. A butcher's shop, few doors along from the old Marks & Spencers. Cash carrier in mid-1960s. "Cashier was a buxom blonde". (Staff at Adams, Rye)
HAWKHURST, Kent. C.B.Butcher (small dept store). Gipe system with single line that ran from drapery department through to cash desk in the grocery store. Closed ca. 1956. (David Lawrence)
HERNE BAY, Kent. Hulburds (dept store), William Street. "When I left school in 1962, my first job was at Hulburds... This store had the tube system [in] which the money was sent to a little cash office, each department had metal box with glass fronted door you opened which was where you put in the bullet type cash holder and the air suction whisked it to the office. Underneath in the cellar was a maze of tubes connected to the cash office." (Simply Whitstable Visitors Book, 17/6/06)
HERNE BAY, Kent. Outfitters next to Woolworths, Mortimer Street. Wire system ca. 1955. (Simply Whitstable Visitors Book, 17/6/06)
HERTFORD. Neales Bon Marche. "The old-fashioned overhead wire system". Hertford Museum Newsletter, No. 41, Sept. 2004
HIGH WYCOMBE, Bucks. Murrays, White Hart Street. Pneumatic tube system. Oxford & Chilterns Bus Page
HORSHAM, W. Sx. Chart & Lawrence, West Street. Cash carrier. (Sylvia Standing. Reminiscences about West Street shops in the 1940s and 1950s - at Horsham Museum)
HORSHAM, W. Sx. Hunt Bros. (haberdashers), West Street. Cash carrier in 1950s. (Ronnie Godfrey)
HOVE, E. Sx. Palmera Stores. Wire system. (Elizabeth Garrett)
HOVE, E. Sx. Shaws, George Street. Pneumatic tube system. (Elizabeth Garrett)
ILFORD, Essex. Bodgers, Cranbrook Road. Ilford Library has photographs showing pneumatic tubes below the ceiling in kitchenware, fabrics and furniture departments. "Money boxes flying across the ceiling" ('Musikooluk' in posting to Whirligig message board, 21/11/04). Reported to have Rapid Wire system in Daily Mirror, 21 July 1977.
ILFORD,
Essex. Fairheads, Cranbrook Road. Five-station Lamson pneumatic tube
system (originally eight stations) with Standard Gravity Desk. Installed
in 1950s and in use until about 1991 (Liffen).
Three Pneu Art stations still visible on first floor and one on ground
floor in Oct. 2004. Ilford Library has a photograph of neckwear department
showing tubes and a station dated 1957.
"The snaking pipes of Lamson pneumatic tube systems .. can still
be glimpsed on the walls and ceilings of some drapery stores, such as
Fairhead's in Ilford, although they have inevitably given way to stand-alone
cash registers." Morrison, p.76
ILFORD, Essex. Moultons Store. Lamson wire system. Photo of cash office with about eight lines in Hammond
KINGSTON, Surrey. Bentalls. "The Bentalls cash railway was a complex pneumatic system." (James Follett in posting to UK.people.supersurfers, 25/4/08)
LEWES, E. Sx. Co-op, 3-4 West Street. The Co-op had moved there by 1878 and the premises were largely rebuilt about 1905. It closed in the 1980s and the building is now Wallis and Wallis, Auctioneers. Gipe? wire system. "You pulled the lever down, you put a cup in, put the cash in with its little docket and you pulled the lever. There were about five railways which went along to the cash desk." (Lewes remembers). Also Wells mentions "depressing a lever". Downstairs was grocery on one side and provisions on the other: upstairs was drapery. Leonard Woolf [husband of Virginia] came every Wednesday by car from Rodmell. (Geoffrey Symonds describing 1940s in National Sound Archive).
LEWES, E. Sx. T.Fogden (men's outfitters), High Street. Formerly part of Haines - see below. One Lamson pneumatic tube line to take cash upstairs to office. (Tim Fogden)
LEWES, E. Sx. Percy Haines (drapers), High Street. Wire system before WW2. Shop was on two levels. Sold in 1954 and one half became Fogdens.
LEWES, E. Sx.. Morrish & Son, Lewes Drapery Emporium, 186 High Street, now ASK Pizza. Wire system. (Lewes remembers)
LEWES, E. Sx. Roberts (grocers), opp. Town Hall, now Shoe Gallery. Wire system. There were two counters, dry goods and meat/cheese, and a cash office at the back. Probably until 1950s. (Charles Painter)
LEWES, E. Sx. Walker & Co.(grocers), 223 High Street, now divided into Clarks shoes and Wilson, Wilson & Hancock opticians. Wire system. (Lewes remembers)
LITTLEHAMPTON, W.Sx. Murray Manns drapery shop. Rapid Wire system in 1970s. "Polished brass display racks, an old-fashioned gas lamp .., an impressive criss-cross of rapid wires, and a splendid oak cash desk, raised like a pulpit, as its nerve centre." Daily Telegraph, 30 Dec. 1971.
LONDON - see separate page
MAIDSTONE, Kent. Blake & Sons, High Street. Wire system and short pneumatic system worked by a foot pump to Fashions department upstairs. Terminal there was a dolphin's mouth but stolen during alterations. Other apparatus still there in 1978 prior to closure. (Information from Mrs Proctor.) Building now occupied by Royal Bank of Scotland and Thomas Cooks. (Hales, Irene. Maidstone in old photographs. Stroud: Alan Sutton, 1990, p.32 )
MAIDSTONE, Kent. Henry Payne (drapers), Bank Street. Wire system on two floors. In use until 1970s and possibly 1980s. (Peter Mason)
NEWHAVEN, E. Sx. Co-op, corner of Bridge Street and Chapel Street (where Working Men's Club is now). Lamson Rapid Wire system with six propulsions. Two are now at Seaford Museum and two at Newhaven Museum. (Charles Painter)
NEW MALDEN, Surrey. Tudor-Williams, High Street. Wire system in 1950s and early 60s. (James Follett in posting to demon.local newsgroup, 10/6/02)
OXTED, Surrey. Co-op. Wire system at Co-op mentioned in C. Matthew "A nightingale sang in Fernhurst Road" but may be fictional.
READING, Berks. Hedgecocks (drapers). Wire system in 1920s. "The extraordinary overhead railway system." (Roger Searing. Down memory lane: Reading between the wars. Newbury: Countryside Books, 1985, p.13)
READING,
Berks. Jacksons outfitters,
1-9 Kings Road. Lamson pneumatic tube system
with nine stations, still in use for giving change when I visited in June
2003.
READING, Berks. Langstons, Friar Street. Wire system. (Talk at Wargrave Local History Society, November 1998)
READING, Berks. Milwards, Broad Street. "They unscrewed the bottle, put your money in, screwed it onto a hanger on the line, pulled something like a toilet chain and the bottle shot off like a rocket, with a swishing of lines and swinging gaily .. from side to side and in through a hole in the bookeeper's office at the far end of the shop. The receipt soon returning the same way. I could not wait for my next pair of shoes!" Malcolm, posting to Reading Forum, 28 Feb. 2003
RICHMOND, Surrey. Palmers, drapers. Part of system acquired in 1973 and installed in Museum of London. (Info from the Museum where I have seen it.)
SHEERNESS, Kent. Bon Marche, High Street. Wire system in mid-1950s. (Roger Betts)
SHEERNESS, Kent. Co-op Menswear dept., Crescent. Wire system in mid-1950s. (Roger Betts)
SHEERNESS, Kent. Central Co-op Groceries dept, Broadway. Wire system in mid-1950s. (Roger Betts)
SHEERNESS, Kent. Featherstones, Broadway. Wire system in mid-1950s. (Roger Betts)
SOUTHEND, Essex. Brightwells (upmarket draper). Cash carrier in 1960s. (Alan Martin)
SOUTHEND, Essex. Dixons. Pneumatic tube system. (Posting to alt.folklore.urban newsgroup, 20/4/01)
SOUTHEND, Essex. A.J.Sopers, High Street. Operating into the 1960s. (Alan Martin)
STOCK, Essex. Sewters (groceries and drapery), High Street/Swan Lane. "Entering the central door on the High Street, there were counters down either side with an elevated 'cubby-hole' at the far end where the cashier could view the entire shop and receive money from the sales assisants via an overhead wire transportation system." Stock website
STROOD, Kent. Harwoods. "Harwoods, one of the big clothing shops in Strood, had a splendid overhead wire cable-way for transporting containers of receipts and money back and forth between the counters and the cash-office." (WW2 People's War: an archive of World War Two memories on BBC website)
SUTTON, Surrey. Shinners. Pneumatic tube system. "Baz_host" posting to Daily Mail chat, 17/7/05
SUTTON, Surrey. Southern Co-op household and clothes store, Stonecot Hill, Morden Road. Wire system. Closed soon after WW2. (R.Hennessy).
TUNBRIDGE WELLS, Kent. Goldsmiths (drapers) OR Waymarks (drapers), Calverley Road/Mount Pleasant Road. [May be one or both.] Cash ball system. (Butcher)
WALLINGTON GREEN, Surrey. Co-op. Wire system in 1950s. (Peter Forbes in posting to uk.rec.models.engineering newsgroup, 13/12/07)
WALTHAM
CROSS, Herts. Fishpools, 115 High Street. Reported to have pneumatic
tube system in 2005. ChristineW in posting to Daily
Mail chat, 17/7/05
WATFORD, Herts. Cawdells, High Street. Pneumatic tube system. Watford Observer website
WEALDSTONE, Middx. Sainsburys. Cash carrier in mid-1950s. (Lynne Tann-Watson)
WHITSTABLE, Kent. Co-op, Oxford Street. In 1967 it had only recently disposed of its Cash Ball system. (Posting to uk.rec.subterranea newsgroup, 8 Mar. 2000). "Who ran off with .. the overhead cash tramway at the Co-op?" (Simply Whitstable Visitors Book, 3/6/06) Back in the 1950s, it was a department store including menswear, womenswear, grocery, green grocery, butchers, bakers and possibly other sections. There was a round cashiers 'office' in the centre. Shop assistants in the other departments used the railway to transmit the customer's cash and bill to the cashiers. The little pot returned with the receipt and change. Thus none of the departments had a till or money." (Simply Whitstable Visitors Book, 16/6/06)
WINDSOR, Berks. W.J.Daniel (small dept store) 120 Peascod Street.Wire system. "In 1924 .. they started their overhead Shuttle system to get their money to the cash office." Daniel Stores website. System still there in 1950s, on ground floor only. (Giles Barnabe)
WINDSOR, Berks. Suiters (drapers) St Leonard's Road. Wire system in 1950s. (Giles Barnabe)
WOODFORD GREEN, Essex. Puddicombes drapers. Tube system. Now closed. (N.Pitt)
WORTHING, W.Sx. Potter Baileys (grocers), lower end of High Street. "Potter Bailey's, on the corner of Anne Street, the next street down, was a large grocery store, just one of a thriving chain with branches all over the district. There was a network of overhead wires in the main shop, on which messages and money whizzed about in every direction on brass weights, to and from the various counters and the central cashier, who sat perched up at the main junction in an elevated cash-desk like a pulpit." Dave Disss. Dizzy. (Lewes: Book Guild, 2005) p. 52
Museums
BATTLE,
E. Sx. Yesterday's World,
High Street. Has a Rapid Wire system in grocer's
shop display.
DARTFORD,
Kent. Museum. See DARTFORD: Kerrs above. In
operational condition.
FAVERSHAM,
Kent. Fleur de Lis Heritage Museum. Display
on Rapid Wire systems including some parts from the system at Childs,
Faversham.
NEWHAVEN, E.Sx. Museum,. Paradise Park, Avis Road. Rapid Wire system with propulsions from Newhaven Co-op (Peter Mason). The museum also has a section of pneumatic tube from HMS Forward, a site which monitored shipping in the Channel in WW2.
SEAFORD, E.Sx. Museum. Rapid Wire system with propulsions
from Newhaven Co-op (see above).
indicates systems which
are still there (as far as I know) though they may not be working.