Photographs

Croydon: Allders

Dartford: Kerr's and
Museum

Ilford: Fairheads

Faversham Museum

Harpenden: Anscombes

Reading: Jacksons

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)

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

BRIGHTLINGSEA, Essex. International stores (or Co-op?). Wire system. (Peter Moon)

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)

CHELMSFORD, Essex. F.Luckin Smith (grocers), High Street. Wire system in 1960s. Company was bought out in 1970s. (Martin Pay)

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)

EDGWARE, Middx. Stanley J.Lee (drapery emporium). Wire system. "Vicar to Dad's Army: the Frank Williams story"

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. Paine's., 9 High Street. "The shop had an ‘office’ which was a partioned off, raised room area in the haberdashery department with glass windows and a door. Payments would be sent through to the office via a cash railway...  There was a network of rail tracks along the ceilings in all the departments for this purpose.  I think it was likely that this was a Rapid Wire." Bygone Grays Thurrock with photos of exterior.

GRAYS THURROCK, Essex. Joyes Emporium, New Road. Wire system. The cash office was "a sort of cubicle with frosted glass" (RootsWeb.com website) Photos of shop at Bygone Grays Thurrock

GUILDFORD, Surrey. Carling, Gill and Carling. Wire system in 1950s. (Rob Kilby)

GUILDFORD, Surrey. Gammons (drapers), North Street. "Gammons was a general Drapers Store, old fashion. When you paid your bill you could see your cash being put [in a] capsule, and whiz around the store on a rail that hung from the ceiling." (Barbara Mallyon in posting to ENG-SURREY-L, 18/10/04)

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.

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

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 were 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
Photos on Flickr. Shop closed on 6 December 2008 and sold for development. Photographs

ILFORD, Essex. Moultons Store. Lamson wire system. Photo of cash office with about eight lines in Hammond

ILFORD, Essex. Pointings. Pneumatic tube system. See Reminiscences

KINGSTON, Surrey. Bentalls. "The Bentalls cash railway was a complex pneumatic system." (James Follett in posting to UK.people.supersurfers, 25/4/08)

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)

MORDEN, Sur. Halls. "Yes we did [have cash carriers] in our Co-op and in Halls in Morden." (Irene in posting to ENG-SURREY-L, 18/10/04)

NEWBURY, Berks. Camp Hopsons. "The most spacious shop premises in Newbury at that time were Camp Hopson's who covered everything from haberdashery through men's and women's tailoring to carpets, upholstery and removals (They still do.).... In several of the departments there were 'overhead railways' which carried cash and bills from the counters to the central cashier's office at the back. When a purchase was made, the bill and cash were put by the shop assistant into a screw-top container about as big as two fists, made to run along an overhead wire. This was then 'fired': a spring was released, the head of which struck the container and impelled it hard along the wire. It fairly flew off on its course, with a characteristic swishing noise which I can hear now, and you could watch its flight to the cashier's - a good, long way, too. Then, after a brief interval, it would return with the receipted bill and the change, arriving back with a loud 'ping' and a sudden stop. Sometimes there might be as many as four of these containers in flight at once." Richard Adams. The day gone by: an autobiography. (London: Hutchinson, 1990, p. 85)

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. There is a video on YouTube.

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)

UXBRIDGE, Middx. Co-op. "The shop assistants would write out the Co-op cheque and add the customer's number. As there were no tills the money was sent up to a cash office via an air-powered Lamson chute. Customers then had to wait for their change to come whizzing across overhead." Yours [magazine], 10-23 Mar 2009.

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)

WEMBLEY, Middx. Killips. "The money on wires system I remember was in Killips' store in Wembley - long since gone." (Viv in posting to Whirligig message board, 21/11/04)

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)

Museums

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.

indicates systems which are still there (as far as I know) though they may not be working.