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145
Hammersmith Road
It
is not known when this building was first used by
Lyons but it was probably several years before the
start of the Second World War. During the war the
church (St Mary's), which stands on the same piece
of land between the new Laboratory Building and
Edith Road, was destroyed by a bomb (and since
rebuilt) and it is likely that 145 Hammersmith Road
suffered the same fate. Early maps indicate that
there was a substantial property (a school) on the
corner of Edith Road and it is likely that this
would have been earmarked by Lyons for potential
use. Whether or not Lyons acquired the school or
just the building adjacent to it is unclear. After
the war part of the property seems to have been
rebuilt (the school does not show on post war
plans) although not to the same size. It was
occupied by the Teashop Shop-fitting Department
throughout the 1950s. This group, under the
direction of Len Velluet, were responsible for
designing and laying out all teashop refurbishment
projects as well as the design of new teashops,
including Front Shop and interior decoration. A
further group who were housed in this building were
a group of HVAC designers, under the management of
W. H. Smith. They designed all the ducting and
ventilation systems involved in teashops
nationwide. Their purpose was to keep the
atmosphere in the teashop sweet and pleasant
despite the heavy cooking and frying that was
carried out in the teashops. These HVAC designers
were housed in the southern part of the
building.
The
Taste Panel, a section of Operations Research,
first occupied the building in 1963. Known
officially as 145 Hammersmith Road it was here that
many of the company's psychological tests were
carried out on new product tastes and sampled by
Lyons' own staff for research purposes. This was
not strictly an office building where clerks toiled
on accounts but rather one of a purposeful function
and it had been designed accordingly. The reception
room was designed to put possibly shy or nervous
tasters at ease. The decorations were bright and
cheerful in reds, blues and greys with comfortable
seats and a scattering of magazines. Those who
attended as tasters, generally on a fortnight
routine, came from many departments of the company
and were from all age groups. From the reception
area the taters were admitted into a small cubicle
where the taster faced an interviewer through a
hatch. Beyond the panellists room were the kitchens
where the samples were prepared and cooked. There
were four interviewers: Mrs I. Edwards, Mrs M.
Spencer, Mrs M. Rodda and Miss J. Cope. The girls
also took turns to prepare the samples. Tasters
were asked simple questions and were expected to
give simple answers. This was so that the
psychologists in the section, who assess the
results, did not have to sort through a lot of
words. Great care was taken not only in the
phrasing of the questions but also in the tone in
which they were asked. And, because the
interviewers must be able to change places with
each other, they must have a universal style to
prevent their personalities from affecting the
results. Having answered all the questions on a
product, the panel member moved on to another
cubicle and repeated the procedure with a different
sample. Sometimes when research into the taste
senses was conducted panellists did not always have
pleasant things to taste. Colour also plays an
important part in a person's preference for food
and drink, so if the test was to measure the effect
of colour on taste, members were asked to eat
samples under different coloured lights. One of the
cubicles was adapted for this. Some 200 staff were
regular tasters and the results obtained were
passed to a team of psychologists who prepared a
report which was then sent to the department who
had initiated the study. The Taste Panel were
called upon to test the public's tastes on a wide
variety of subjects. The problem may have been
whether: English people liked garlic in their
sausages or different kinds of orange in squash or
whether a blend of tea will be strong enough. And
because, with tea and squashes, the type of water
used is so important-and the fact that people in
different parts of the country have different
preferences, the Taste Panel sometimes had to move
around the country to carry out their
research.
©
Peter Bird 2005
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