Photographs
Shops
BRADFORD. Co-op, Sunwin House. Pneumatic tube system. (Posting to rec.arts.tv.coronation-st newsgroup, 19/9/02) Also postings to alt.fan.goons newsgroup, 17/3/04 and 22/11/05 - same shop? - see Reminiscences.
BRADFORD. R.Denby & Son. Still using Rapid Wire system in 1977. Daily Mirror, 21 July 1977, p.20
HUDDERSFIELD. Kayes, King Street. Pneumatic tube system until at least mid-1960s. Lamson engineer used to come in to do repairs and fit new pads to ends of carriers. "Quite a big system." (Gordon Kneale Brooke)
HUDDERSFIELD. Rushworths. Pneumatic tube system in 1950s. (G. Martin)
HUDDERSFIELD. Yorkshire Warehouse store (household goods and clothes), Cross Church Street. Lamson wire system until mid-1950s. (Gordon Kneale Brooke)
HULL. Boyes, 232-4 Hessle Road. Opened in 1920. "The cash office was a raised-up unit in the centre of the shop. This was to allow the overhead-wire cash system to operate. There were 14 cash-points around the store each with its own numbered cash containers and pulley system for propelling the container up to the cash office, the return journey being mainly by gravity." (Boyes stores book)
HULL. Co-operative Store. Pneumatic tube system. Photo of cashier's office with 20 terminals in Gerrard, p. 74
HULL. Hammonds, Paragon Square.
Opened in 1916. "It was a cause of celebration that Hammond's
had .. a system of pneumatic tubes, 'obviating the necessity for the out-of-date
cash desks'. Cash was drawn effortlessly up to the counting-house on the
first floor and change speedily returned. Thrilling details were provided
of the thousands of feet of 'solid drawn brass tubing', bends, sleeves
and joints employed in 'one of the largest and most up-to-date plants
of its kind in England." (John Markham, Hammonds of Hull: a store
of good things for family and home. Beverley: Highgate, 2004. p.20)
The shop was bombed in May 1941 and rebuilt after the war, reopening on
16 May 1952. "The pneumatic tube system was also not ready for use
and, as a temporary measure, cash desks were put in place." (Ibid.
p.50) In September 1972 it was transferred to House of Fraser.
LEEDS. Hitchins. Tube system."At Hitchins department store in Leeds more than fifty years ago I was fascinated by these. They worked on a suction/vacuul principle." Mary Fisher in posting to DIYbanter.com 3/11/04
LEEDS. Lewis's. Pneumatic tube system "including a tube room fifty feet below street level. It was connected by twenty-five miles of pneumatic tubing with the 250 change points in the store, the change returning to the points, it was boasted, at thirty miles an hour." (Briggs) "In 1932, at the age of 14, Mrs McNess got a job at Lewis's in the 'Tube Room' counting change and sending it back up to the shop floor." (Methleys website)
LEEDS. Matthias Robinson, Briggate. "With those roaring pneumatic tubes whose grey-capped cylinders fetched back your change from some distant basement". (Alan Bennett in the Guardian, 1 Apr. 1994, p.7)
LEEDS. Pygmalion. Cash Ball system. (Information from Mrs Proctor.)
LEEDS. Schofields. Pneumatic tube system throughout the store, including quick sale departments. (Hammond)
MIDDLESBROUGH. Binns. Cash carrier. (Lee)
MIDDLESBROUGH. Co-op, Higher Linthorpe Road. Cash carrier system installed when it opened 1 March 1899. Building covered 6,573 square feet, divided into four shops. Second floor provided millinery, mantle, drapery and grocery rooms. "Votes of thanks were accorded to .. the contractor for heating and cash carrier, Messrs Sykes and Co." Northern Echo, 2 Mar. 1899
MIDDLESBROUGH. John Hendley & Co.(drapers). Cash Ball system opened 3 March 1887 (Middlesbrough Daily Exchange). According to Northern Echo, 11 Feb. 1887, p.1 it was opened by the mayor on Saturday 1st January.
MIDDLESBROUGH. Wrights Tower House (dept store) where Macdonalds is now. Pneumatic tube system. (Ali in posting to uk.people.silversurfers 10/11/03)
NORTHALLERTON. Barkers (dept store), 199 High Street. Pneumatic tube system with 16 terminals. Cash office was on second floor: sales floors were ground and first. Dismantled in major refurbishment in mid-1980s. (Claire Jarmain and Barkers). Photographs
REDCAR. Co-op, Queen Street. "Here I queued for the week's milk tokens, marveling at the way the assistant put the money into a little canister and placed it in a vacuum tube, the change came back the same way." 1950s. Communigate website
RICHMOND. Co-op, Rosemary Lane. "After you'd rattled off the Co-op number and the assistant had printed it on a tear-off slip, this with your money would be placed in a wood and brass cup and screwed into an overhead apliance. A handle attached to it by a strong piece of elastic would be pulled, so releasing the cup which would whizz across the shop, coming to a stop over the cashier's booth. At this point, a white hand would reach up and unscrew the cup, take out the money and slip which would be replaced by one's change, then ..." Audrey Carr. You must remember this: Richmond and thereabouts during the war. (Aztec, 1987) p.24
ROSSINGTON. Co-op. "The Co Op where my grandmother would buy an ounce of salmon paste... When she paid they would put the money in one of those metal cup things and send it on a pulley to the cash office, and then wait for the change to come back." Rosemary Robinson posting to The Villager website 23/2/06
ROTHERHAM. Burton (menswear). "I worked at Burton Tailoring in Rotherham from 1959-64... They had a Lamson Paragon air tube system between the two floors - brass as you say." Nigel Womersle posting to Sheffield Froum, 6/9/06
SCARBOROUGH, Yorks. Boyes. Cash ball system probably from 1896. Lamson pneumatic tube system installed in 1900 for £848. Photographs
SELBY. Pyke and Mould (grocers), Ousegate. Cash ball system still there in 1960s. (Gordon Kneale Brooke)
SHEFFIELD. John Banner. Pneumatic tube system installed by Sturtevant Engineering Co. There was a double-sided desk for 75 cash stations - photographs in Hammond. "I was always fascinated when our money was put in a little brass cylinder, which then whisked off with a hiss of compressed air, then it would arrive back with the change in it." ("Little Malc" in posting to Sheffield Forum)
SHEFFIELD. Blanchards, Infirmary Road, S6. Cash carrier until 1950s. (Sheila Rimmington). "Had shoots for money" ("Pauline in posting to Sheffield Forum)
SHEFFIELD. Brightside & Carbrook Co-op, Boyland Street, Neepsend/Parkwood Springs, S3. "I remember .. the overhead money transporters. Even though the shop wasn't big compared to shops today, they had a cashier's office (which must have been elevated above the ground floor). There were overhead wires on which were attached 'pods' and the wires could be reached by the shop assistants around the shop to transport cash to and from the cashier via the 'pods'." (Sheila Rimmington in Walk the Ages website) Closed in late 1950s.
SHEFFIELD. George Binns clothiers, Cambridge Street, S1. "I had to retrieve the money in the tubes when they came down the shoot." (Vera Hopkinson in posting to Sheffield Forum)
SHEFFIELD. Cole Brothers, Church Street. Pneumatic tube system. ("Mags" in posting to Sheffield Forum, 12/9/06)
SHEFFIELD. Co-op, Barber Road. "The Co-op on Barber rd had an overhead money system and the cashier sat in the office looking down into the shop." ("Mags" in posting to Sheffield Forum, 12/9/06)
SHEFFIELD. Co-op, Bents Green. "It was the canister hanging on a wire system, with a cord hanging down that fired the canister over to the cashiers." ("Cliffhanger" in posting to Sheffield Forum, 6/9/06)
SHEFFIELD. Co-op, Chesterfield Road/Meersbrook Park Road. "Brass tube system" - see Reminiscences
SHEFFIELD. Co-op, Greenhill village, S8. Cash carrier around 1956. ("Albatross" in posting to Sheffield Forum, 7/9/05)
SHEFFIELD. Co-op, Hickmott Road. "Small Co-op near Hickmott Road had the railway variety with three tracks. They went to the corner of the shop where a female cashier sat on what looked more like an elevated platform with a veranda. She overlooked everything and could have thrown customers their change a lot quicker." ("PeterW" in posting to Sheffield Forum, 6/9/06)
SHEFFIELD. Sheffield & Ecclesall Co-op, The Arcade. "The cash system was made by a company called 'Lamson', and at its heyday was supposed to have been the biggest system outside London. I was employed there as the instore engineer, our many branches had the wire system, just known as 'cash carriers'." (Ernie Wild in posting to Sheffield Forum) "When I started there in 1979 the cash carriers were no longer in use, although the equipment was still in place." (Ernie Wild)
SHEFFIELD. Sheffield & Ecclesall Co-op, Carterknowle Road S12. Wire system. (Ernie Wild) Photographs
SHEFFIELD. Sheffield & Ecclesall Co-op, Crosspool S10. Wire system. (Colin Woodhead)
SHEFFIELD. Sheffield & Ecclesall Co-op, Holly Thorpe Rise. "Quite a few of the Co-ops in the various districts had cash railway systems. The S & E Co-op at Holly Thorpe Rise (Lees Hall Avenue) for one." ("Falls" in posting to Sheffield Forum, 6/9/06)
SHEFFIELD. Laceys, West Bar, S3. "Had shoots for money too" (Pauline in posting to Sheffield Forum)
SHEFFIELD. Toy shop, London Road, Heeley Bottom. "I'm sure there was an overhead wire system in a toy shop in London Road, Heeley Bottom... This would have been around 1967." ("Henrypond" in posting to Sheffield Forum, 6/9/06)
SHEFFIELD. Tuckwoods (luxury food - amongst other things?), Fargate. "There used to be a shop in Fargate called Tuckwoods. Long gone - approximately where M & S are now. I seem to remember that they had a cash centre system (railway type) that was a little different. You entered the shop through a sort of covered arcade with counters on both sides. At the end was the main shopping area. A large hall with balconies, lots of wrought iron and a glass roof. The cash centre was in the middle of the main hall and the 'rail tracks' radiated out. Seem to think the center was a two-level affair. The low level served the main floor while the high level was for the departments on the balcony. It did the usual trick, like passing through holes in walls, etc. ("Falls" in posting to Sheffield Forum, 6/9/06)
SHEFFIELD. Woolworths, Haymarket. "When I was a kid, Woolworths in The Haymarket where the now closed British Home Stores is, had an overhead cash wire system." (Nigel Womersle in posting to Sheffield Forum, 11/9/06)
Museums
BRADFORD.
Industrial Museum. One run of a Rapid Wire system with two propulsions
on display in the gift shop. The maker's plate reads "Lamson Engineering
Co Ltd, Hythe Road, London NW10". Originally from a china shop in
Seven Sisters (Holt).
BRIDLINGTON. Boyes dept. store. Museum on 3rd floor with a reconstruction of
a cash ball system. The track is made up of three steel rods welded to
rings. There is one lift which looks original. There are also a section
of an original rail and a ball in a glass case, a pneumatic tube carrier
(stamped 19D), and photographs of a tube system and Rapid Wire system
on display.
indicates systems which
are still there (as far as I know) though they may not be working.