James
Hayes & Sons Ltd Office at Cadby
Hall
Although
this was one of the group of offices
forming the Clerical Department, the work
of the Hayes Laundry Office differed in
many respects from those of the general
offices at Cadby Hall, since it was
responsible for all the clerical functions
of the Laundry business of James Hayes
& Sons Ltd, a subsidiary of the
company.
The
laundry was situated in Camberwell and
provided a continuous daily service to
many of the company's establishments and
the associated hotel companies. There was
also a substantial amount of business with
private customers, hospitals and other
institutions. Their office procedures were
divided into six different groups.
The
Accounts Group was in many respects a
combination of the Chief Accountant's and
Accounts Offices at Cadby Hall, and kept
all records of the company's accounts,
maintained records of the company's assets
and dealt with licences and insurance of
vehicles, in conjunction with the
appropriate offices at Cadby Hall.
The
Invoice Group had two main functions. As a
cost office for James Hayes & Sons, it
passed purchase invoices for payment,
prepared sales invoices, and maintained
records of consumable stocks such as soap,
soda and packing materials. On a smaller
scale, as a Lyons cost office it was
responsible for the control of the Lyons
Linen Store stocks. Laundry costs were
prepared each week for all departments
serviced and sent to the Catering Office.
Other duties included control of van
salesmen's takings and preparing
statistical information for
management.
The
Lists Group was concerned solely with the
house-to-house trade known as the
'Ful£worth Service'. Van salesmen
were responsible for the collection of
cash from customers and the group prepared
the journey sheets showing the amounts to
be collected. A section of this group
provided, by means of Adrema printing
machines, a service for the laundry lists,
wage sheets, clock cards, etc.
The
Wages Group was a smaller edition of the
Wages Office at Cadby Hall. It prepared
the payroll of all the company's employees
and dealt with staff deductions, kept all
staff records and records relevant to
information regarding current trade
regulations. The Premium Bonus Group,
working in close co-operation with the
Wages Group, calculated the bonuses earned
by the factory employees and prepared
engineers' statistics for
management.
The
Cashier had a separate office partitioned
from the general office complete with its
own counter and grill. It was a miniature
treasury making all petty cash payments,
payments to suppliers, and receiving,
controlling and banking cash. The cashier
also maintained the company's cash book
and made up and paid wages.
The
Services Group, as the name implied, did
all the 'odd jobs' for the office and many
for the factory. A small telephone
exchange provided a telephone service for
the company and it also supplied typing
and duplicating services. Within this
Group was a small pool of experienced
clerks.
James
Hayes established his first laundry at
Rushey Green, near Lewisham, in 1868. He
advertised it as a power laundry as
distinct from a hand laundry.
By
the second half of the nineteenth century,
hotels, hospitals and institutions of
various kinds were experiencing the need
for their laundering to be carried out
away from their premises. James Hayes was
one of the first to see the commercial
possibilities of meeting this need. The
laundry that he opened at Rushey Green,
which he named The Royal, specialised at
the outset in providing contract services.
In 1900 the laundry was renamed James
Hayes & Sons Ltd and in the same year
a business relationship began with Lyons,
who already owned the Belgrave Laundry in
Pimlico, which they had bought in 1894.
Recognising the greater efficiency of the
Hayes laundry, Lyons transferred their
work and the Belgrave Laundry to Hayes'
new premises in Peckham. The main contract
consisted of laundering tablecloths and
napkins for the teashops and restaurants.
Business grew rapidly and in 1908 James
Hayes bought a plot of land in Coldharbour
Lane, Camberwell, designing for himself a
building that would provide the best
possible working conditions for his staff
and installing the best laundry equipment
available at that time.
In
1926 Lyons made an offer to acquire all
the equity in Hayes laundry, at which
point it became a full subsidiary of
Lyons. In 1979, after the Lyons group had
passed into the ownership of Allied
Breweries, James Hayes & Sons Ltd was
sold to Johnson Group Cleaners.
©
Peter Bird 2005
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