Photographs
Shops
Arding & Hobbs (dept. store), Clapham Junction, SW11. Lamson pneumatic tube system with at least eight Pneu-Art stations still being used when I visited in February 2003 for internal communication and till clearance but disppeared during modernisation in 2004. The shop was rebuilt in 1910 following a fire and originally had fifty stations. The Pneu-Art stations must have been replacements, as this design was introduced in the 1930s (Liffen).
Arthurs Stores, corner of Westbourne Grove and Chepstow Road. "Cash railway... speeding along wires above your head". Geoffrey Green: Early memories of Bayswater
Bon Marché, Brixton. Pneumatic tube stsyem by 1900. (Draper's Record, 17 March 1900, p.676)
John Barnes, Finchley Road. Opened on 29 March 1900 with Lamson Pneumatic Tube system. At that time only 3 other London shops had it. "The cylinders travel at the rate of 2,500 feet a minute... There are thirty two 'stations' throughout the house. (Draper's Record, 17 March 1900, p.676)
Bartons (dept. store), Wood Green. "As a kid I was fascinated by their overhead money system. It was a track that ran around the store and when you paid the cashier they put it into a tube and attached it to the rail & then pulled a cord to send it winging off to a central cash office." ("Roy" in posting to GEN-TRIVIA-ENG-L list, 6/7/99. Roy was born in 1945.)
Bearmans (dept. store), Leytonstone. Cash carrier. Now demolished. (N.Pitt)
Blands (haberdashers), Wembley High Road. Lamson pneumatic system in 1950s and 60s. (Posting to uk.rec.subterranea newsgroup, 8 Mar. 2000)
Boardmans (dept. store), Stratford. Wire system. Now demolished. (N.Pitt)
Bravingtons (jewellers), Ludgate Hill. Wire system with three stations. (Liffen)
F.W.Bugg (grocer), 114 Talbot Road, Westbourne Grove, W11. "Cash and change would travel between the grocer, the cashier and the customer via an overhead machine operated by a pulley system." Photograph of wire system on Museum of London: Postcodes project
A china shop, Seven Sisters. Rapid Wire system in about 1968. "One of the wires passed above a great conical display of stacked china. There was a gap where the carrier could pass through." Removed and some parts installed in Bradford Museum.
Walter Cobb. 14/30 Kirkdale, Sydenham, SE26. Pneumatic tube system extended after WW2. For details see Lamson Pneumatic Tubes page. (Documents in Lewisham Archives, A81/68/2/26.)
Co-op, East Ham. Cash carrier. (Posting by 'Brian' to Newham Local History Forum, 3/3/06).
Co-op, High Street, Wood Green. Wire system up to 1970. (Letter from J.E.Hackford in Hertfordshire Countryside, vol. 29 (No. 187), Nov. 1974, p.47)
Daniels (drapers), Balham. Cash carrier. (Frances Muncey)
Philip Davies, East Sheen, SW14. Rapid Wire system until about 1970. (Barbara Hathaway)
A department store, Tooting Broadway. Cash carrier. "I wanted to work in the department store .. when I grew up just so I could be the cashier in the little room." "Mornev" in posting to Daily Mail chat, 18 Jul. 2005
A draper's shop, Chiswick High Road. Wire system. See Thomas in references. Could be Goodbans?
Dunhams, Wanstead. "A cash pulley system... Recently closed [2003]." Part at least acquired by Redbridge Museum and displayed in "Behind the Scenes" exhibition January 2004. Redbridge website
D.H.Evans & Co. Pneumatic tube
system installed by Lamsons in their new Oxford Street store in 1909.
(Times 28 July 1909, Engin. Suppl. p.18)
D.H.Evans' new West Block (1906-9; John Murray) .. was more modern...
Its pneumatic tube system communicated with a cash desk located in a subway
linking the new building with the older East Block" (Morrison
p. 166)
D.H.Evans (drapers) corner of Acton High Street and Horn Lane, Wire system. "The lady would put mum's money into a tube which rotated into a trolley with two wheels, then she would pull on a wooden handle hanging on a green cord. There would be a sort of recoil click, and the little trolley would shoot all the way round the store to the central elevated booth: after a few moments it would come back. Michael in posting to the Gnatterbox, 13/1/07
Evans (grocers), Green street, East Ham, near the Boleyn. Wire system. "The wires crossed each other at points and I lived in hope that one day there would be a crash." (Posting by Alan Smith to Newham Local History Forum, 12/1/06). "Quite a big shop with a reputation for high quality." (Posting by John Plant, 13/1/06)
Fish shop in Harringey. "The fish shop with the overhead wires that sent the money from the counter to the lady on the cash desk" (Ray Smith London Childhood Memories)
Gamages (West End). In 1931 a committee
of the creditors included representatives of the Lamson Store Service
Company Ltd. and Lamson Pneumatic Tube Company Ltd. (Times, 8 May 1931,
p.10).
"I remember gazing in fascination at those cash railways at Gamages".
(June Simpson in posting to Newham
Local History Forum, 12 Jan. 2006)
Godbolds, Lavender Hill, SW11. Gipe system. "Recently dismantled for scrap" but some parts salvaged by Mrs M. Proctor - letter in "This England", Spring 1975. Five stations. Rental was £3 p.a. inclusive of repairs to the wires which frequently needed attention (Mrs Proctor). Also recalled by Michael de Larrabeiti: "There was a big draper's shop called Gobbold's [sic] where they used to send the change bashing about on overhead wires, and I used to buy some little things in there just to see it happen.
Goodbans, High Road, Chiswick. "There used to be a drapers shop in Chiswick called Goodbans... It had an unusual system of overhead wires along which the shop assistants shot a canister device containing your payment for goods to a central cashier's podium. The cashier unscrewed the canister, removed your money and replaced it with your change and shot it back along the wire to the shop assistant at the counter." Brentford: a town to remember website
Goorwitchs, Oxford Street.Pneumatic tube system. Plan of ground floor with four stations in Hammond
David Griegs, Harlesden High Street. "Each counter was connected by wire to a central cashier sitting in a little room high up, along which the money and receipt was [sic] sent backwards and forwards in a metal cylinder." 'Little Red Monkey' posting to Whirligig Message Board 24/5/05
Grouts drapers, 397 Green Lanes, Palmers Green. Gipe system in situ until closure in April 2002. System is being moved to East Anglia Transport Museum. (I visited in 2002). Photograph taken soon after closure in Morrison.
Haberdashers, Coldharbour Lane, Brixton. Later a bicycle shop. "Money whizzing upstairs in a pneumatic tube." APT Self Help website
Hall & Co. (drapers and haberdashers), Stroud Green Road, Islington, N4. Wire carrier in 1960s. (Brian Boyle)
Hamleys (toys). "Had a nice polished brass pneumatic tube system for the same purpose." ('Nemo' in posting to alt.fan.goons newsgroup, 21/11/05) . "I associate it with a sort of aerial dispatch system to send money from the sales counters to a central cashier... It wasn't a Lamson tube... These were probably spring-loaded overhead runways." ('Waxy' in posting to Whirligig message board, 20/11/04).
Hammertons (drapers), Green Street, Upton Park. Pneumatic tube system in 1950s. (Peter Ward in posting to Newham Local History Forum, 3 Mar. 2006)
Harper Bros (drapers), Balham. Lamson's traveller called. BCPC called a few days later and obrtained an order, but the shop alleged they thought they were giving the order to Lamson. One of the locations involved in the court case British Cash and Parcel Conveyors Ltd. v. Lamson Store Service Co. Ltd., 1908. Also information from Frances Muncey.
Harrods, Knightsbridge. "A message-carrying
pneumatic tube system had been in use since Edwardian times, but the 1935
sale saw the introduction of a system that carried cash as well. It was
claimed to be the largest such system in the British Empire: 63 km/39
miles of twisting pipes. Customers' money was placed in a tube and swept
at 27 km/17 miles an hour down to the basement. Cashiers placed the right
change in the tube, adjusted the destination number, and sent it back.
The longest journey was 400 metres/one-quarter mile, and took 54 seconds...
The system was still in use for carrying messages until the 1980s."
(Callery, p.63). Includes a photograph
of the cash office around 1950.
- "The cash room was about 80 ft long with 48 cashier's
positions, which in December 1937 was serving 277 cash and
sanction points. Lamson designed a new style of sales station... It was
given the name .. of 'Pneu-Art."(Liffen).
- Sales stations were finished to harmonise with particular departments,
e.g. silver in the gown department and bronze in men's outfitting. (Hammond).
Two photos in Hammond.
The message system was installed after Richard Burbidge's trip to the
U.S. in 1904, during which he visited Macys in New York. "Not until
the 1970s did the volume of trade and the advent of new technology render
the [cash] tube system obsolete." (Dale)
- "Bills, cheques and cash were sucked up to the cash office in tubes.
Bills were hand-written. It was not until the 70s that tills came in."
(Tessa Bosworth in Millennium Memory Bank, National Sound Archive)
Heywoods (drapers), Manor Park, E12. Single wire system. Extant up to 1955 at least. Shop closed in mid-1960s and site is now a MFI store. (Clive Page)
Hinds, Blackheath. "Going shopping in Hinds was quite an expedition... They would wrap up the money in the bill and put it in one of those round things on a wire and it would go across the shop floor, above your head. The cashier would take the money, sign the receipt and push it back." (Age Exchange Reminiscence Centre)
Jones Brothers, 356 Holloway Road. Originally 2 Pear Tree Terrace. Business dated from 1867. Next door acquired in 1871 and two more properties by 1877. New building in 1892."Each shop kept its own entrance and sold specific merchandise but openings were made so that customers (and the overhead cash railway!) could pass from one to another." The shop closed in 1990. Highbury & Islington Express website
Killips, Webmley. WIre system. "Long since gone." Viv in posting to Whirligig message board, 21/11/04
Kinch & Lack, Victoria, SW1 (school outfitters) "diagonally opposite the Bag of Nails pub". Pneumatic tube system in 1950s. Shop went when Stag Place was widened. (Giles Barnabe)
Stanley J.Lee (drapery emporium), Edgware. Wire system. "Vicar to Dad's Army: the Frank Williams story"
Lidstones (dept. store), High Street, Walthamstow. Wire system. Joan Bigby: A Walthamstow Childhood
Matthew Roses, Hackney. "Overhead cash tramways". Ken Neale "Christmas in Hackney in the 1920s and 1930s" in Hackney Terrier No. 56 (Winter 2000)
North London Drapery Store, Seven Sisters Road, N7 (between Axminster Road and Salterton Road) Lamson tube system in 1940s/50s. (Posting to uk.rec.subterranea newsgroup, 13/8/02 and Ray Smith London Childhood Memories). Working into the 1970s (Eric Galvin).
Owen Owen, Finchley.Pneumatic tube system. (Guardian, 20 Nov 1998, p.14)
Petits (women's clothing), Kensington High Street. "Petit's clerical department was extremely outdated. It was the last shop still using a system of receipts for customers transported by overhead wires. The cashier sat in a sort of overhead balcony. The sales assistant made out a bill and sent it by pulleys and wires to the cashier, who kept one copy and stamped the other "Paid" as a receipt for the customer, and gave the necessary change. This was all transported by wire and pulley back to the sales assistant on the ground floor, who then gave the customer her change and receipt. In the 1950's this system had long become outdated in other stores. Most sales assistants at this time were also cashiers." (Cosy corners in depression and war: autobiography of Joan Hughes)
Pontings (drapers), Kensington High Street.Pneumatic tube system in use after WW2. Cashiers' point was in the sub-basement, two levels below street level. (P.Bird)
Priors, North Finchley. Wire system in 1960s. (Posting to rec.arts.sf.fandom newsgroup, 14/10/95 which says it worked by a clockwork motor!). Cash office was in the centre of the store. Shop was taken over by Owen Owens in 1970s.
Pughs, Hampstead Road. "They
had an overhead cable system with the money being put in sort of boxwood
cups that plugged into a thingy with pulley wheels. The assistant then
pulled a lever that parted the two cables and sent the thing off to the
cashier's desk at very high speed." (A rare description of a Gipe
system in alt.fan.goons newsgroup, 17/3/04)
"The bill and your cash were put into a small boxwood tub which was
screwed onto a thingy which shot along a couple of steel cables to the
central cashier when the assistant pulled a handle, and came back with
your receipt and change." ('Nemo' posting to same group, 21/11/05)
Rexs, Southgate. Cash Ball system ceased to operate in late 1960s. (Information from Mrs Proctor.)
T.R.Roberts, Stratford. Pneumatic Tube system by 1900 (Draper's Record, 17 March 1900, p.676)
Robinson & Cleaver, Regent Street. Drapers firm from Belfast. Branch opened in 1894. Had a Pneumatic Tube system by 1900. (Draper's Record, 17 March 1900, p.676)
P.W.Rogers, 161-163 High Street, Penge, SE20. "At the end was the excitement of the cash transaction which involved the machine above the assistants' heads being used to send money shooting along a wire, in a small container near the ceiling, to the cashier... The Lamson Rapid Cash Carrier single wire with spring propulsion would bring your one farthing back if you insisted on change rather than pins." David R. Johnson. Around Crystal Palace & Penge. Stroud: Sutton Publishing, 2004, p. 130. Photographs of counter and Lamson Rapid carrier.
Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society, Woolwich. Overhead wire system. The carriage returned with change and dividend in the form of embossed tin discs. (John Boon's memories.)
Sainsburys, Southgate. Pneumatic tube system. (Posting to alt.folklore.urban newsgroup, 21/4/01)
Sanders (jewellers), Brixton. Lamson pneumatic tube system. Became Ratners. Blower and some stations in back office were still there in early 1990s. (N.Pitt)
Selfridges, Oxford Street. The first quotation is somewhat surprising with a wire system being used for such a large store. The second refers to a pneumatic tube system which is more appropriate.
-
"When I was around eight years old my mother began taking my brother and I to Selfridges to see the Christmas decorations... One thing really intrigued me. My mother had bought a small item, and the assistant had written out a bill. My mother gave her a £1 note. This was taken, wrapped up with the bill, and placed in a cylinder. This in turn was screwed onto another part that was permanently attached to a cable, which was somehow hanging up in the air about head high. After these two parts were locked to one another, the assistant would pull a cord and the cylinder with the money and the bill would then be catapulted overhead, running along a cable at quite some speed. The departmental areas were quite large, and if you can imagine numbers of these cylinders from the different counters, lots going out and lots coming back - this was quite an interesting piece of mechanism for a young boy. Where did they go to? Which would be ours on the way back? Would it ever come back?" Mr R.H.James describing 1924, in G.Honeycombe. Selfridges: seventy-five years (London: Park Lane, 1984) p.209.
- "David
is describing the vacuum machines where they used to shoot cash and change
through tunnels - as in Selfridges in London in the 1930's. (John F.Winston
in posting to talk.religion.newage, 18/1/96)
[A shop], Marylebone High Street. "The last one [wire carrier] I remember was in Marylebone High Street some twelve years ago." Daily Mirror, 23 Nov. 1968, p.18
Simpsons, Piccadilly. Lamson pneumatic system. (Independent, 13 Dec. 1998, p.38). "Fifty-six stations of different design .. harmonise with the particular department served... To differentiate between cash or 'charge-send' or 'charge-take' transactions, various coloured carriers are used." (Hammond) Photo in Hammond of men's outfitting. In use in the 1970s ("The Older Gentleman" in posting to uk.rec.motorcycles group, 13/12/2004)
W.H.Smith & Son (outfitters), Tooting, SW17. Still using Rapid Wire system in 1977. Daily Mirror, 21 July 1977, p.20. Also Tooting website and Tooting Guest Book
Staddons, opposite Abbey Arms, Canning Town. Wire system. "A focus of fascination with the antiquated ceiling mounted 'money transfer infrastructure'. (Posting by 'Steve' to Newham Local History Forum, 12/1/06).
Sweets (outfitters/drapers), Maryland Point, Stratford. Overhead wire system in 1950s/60s. (Newham Local History Forum)
Trundles, Lordship Lane, Dulwich. "Trundles which sold millinery and lingerie .. had a fascinating cash collecting system whereby the cash and the bill were put in a screw-capped wooden container which whizzed along overhead wires to the cashier and was returned with your change." (Dulwich Society Newsletter, Winter 2005)
Wards, South Tottenham. "We saw our last Lamson Rapid Wire in action at Ward's Stores (alas, no longer there) in South Tottenham, London, a few years back. Daily Mirror, 29 June 1977, p.24
S.Weiss (lingerie), 2 Golders Green Road. Pneumatic tube system. Quotation from Lamsons dated 15 February 1936 in Erno Goldfinger Papers, British Architectural Library (GOLER/224/14): 3 stations on ground floor, 4 on first and 3 on second and gravity cashier's desk. Purchase price £275 net or lease for 10 years at 5 guineas per station per year.
S.Weiss, 59/63 Shaftesbury Avenue. Pneumatic tube system. Quotation from Lamsons dated 12 March 1951 in Erno Goldfinger Papers, British Architectural Library (GOLER/227/5): 6 stations on ground floor and 3 on first. Lamson Cash Power Control Gracity [sic] Desk and Slow Speed Multi-stage Turbo Set. Purchase price £930 or yearly rental of 15 guineas per station.
Wickhams, Mile End Road. "The Institute recently completed a month's investigation in the Central Cash Desk of Messrs Wickhams (C.Barker, Ltd.), in the Mile End Road, London, where the Lamson Pneumatic Tube System is used." (Occupational Psychology, date unknown, p.261)
Wilsons, Crouch End. Wire system in mid/late 1950s. (Simon Green)
Woodmansees (general outfitter), Barking Road, ?East Ham. "Almost opposite the Gas Light and Coke Co offices... Used to have an extensive system of ?vacuum tubes." (James Briggs in posting to Newham Local History Forum, 3 Mar. 2006)
Young and Martins, Romford Road near Broadway, Stratford. Wire system. (Posting by 'Barry' to Newham Local History Forum, 3/3/06).
Museums
Age
Exchange Reminiscence Centre, Blackheath. One length of Rapid Wire
system with two propulsions and one carriage set in reconstruction of
A.H.Davis shop from Hackney. See photographs.
Heritage Centre, Old Dispensary, 30 Romford Road, Stratford, E15. Wire system, formerly in Manor Park museum, but not on display.
Museum of London. See RICHMOND.
Redbridge Museum. See DUNHAMS above.
indicates systems which
are still there (as far as I know) though they may not be working.