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(Webmaster:
John Hall was not an employee of J. Lyons
& Co. but I have included this
recollection here in the hope that it may
revive some memories among former
employees.)
As a
youngster in the late 1940s, one of my
delights was to be taken by my parents for
a meal in the self-service cafeteria of
the Lyons Corner House in the Strand,
London. The management there had
introduced a fixed-price meal (about 1s 9d
if I remember correctly), the idea being
that you could take from the display just
as much as you could fit on your
tray. This, for a young teenager
like myself, seemed too good to be
true!
However,
the management had wisely introduced a
novel innovation to limit the amount of
food that could physically be put on the
trays by any greedy customers. For,
having taken a tray from the pile, the
tray would begin moving by itself along
the rail, transported by an inlaid
conveyor system. Apart from keeping
the crowds moving, this innovation clearly
had the effect of severely limiting the
amount of food that could be transferred
from the display racks to the trays -
there was no time to hesitate in your
choice of food, otherwise you would find
that your tray would miraculously be
carried a few yards ahead in the direction
of the cashier at the end of the
line! Often, I remember, my visits
were punctuated by healthy sprints to
catch up with my tray!
The
"moving tray" concept in the Strand Corner
House was the only place I ever discovered
such a conveyor belt (not to be confused,
of course, with the conveyor belts in
sushi cafeterias that arrived in England
much later and where the displayed food,
not the customers' trays, is placed on the
moving belt).
I wonder
if any former employees of J. Lyons &
Co have memories (fond or otherwise) of
the conveyor belt cafeteria(s). Was
the conveyor belt a successful
innovation? Were there many
accidents involving the self-propelled
trays? And when were the conveyor
belts eventually discontinued?
©
John
Hall
2004
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