Orchard
House
The
Orchard House office served the Teashop
Department, which at its peak employed
some 10,000 people employed in 200-250
teashops throughout the country. The
office was the largest of the clerical
departments outside of Cadby Hall
employing at its peak about 350 staff. It
was on the corner of Oxford Street and
Orchard Street, a few hundred yards from
Marble Arch, and the company occupied the
third, fourth and fifth floors of the
building. They first took occupation in
1930 and prior to this the Shaftsbury
Avenue Maison Lyons (opened 1915) was the
teashops headquarters. The engaging and
training of staff was one of the main jobs
of the Teashop Department at Orchard
House. The bulk of the engaging for the
teashops was done by the Applications
Office. Although applicants could be
engaged on the spot by each manageress,
all the personnel work was carried out at
Orchard House. New staff were taught how
to do the various teashop jobs in the
Training Centre, which was specially
equipped so that they were trained in an
atmosphere as much like a teashop as
possible. There was a Cashier's Room,
where pupils were taught how to master the
intricacies of the cash takings slip, and
how to ring up and give correct change. In
the Front Shop room trainees were taught
with a replica teashop window, with dummy
goods, how to arrange the window display
to attract attention. There was also a
Teashop Kitchen and a Help-Yourself
Counter which taught trainees how to
dismantle and clean the components. All
uniforms for teashop staff were made by
the Dressmaking Department and in nearly
every case the first uniform or overall
was ready before the trainee left Orchard
House for his/her teashop. Uniforms and
dresses were also made here for the staff
of the Corner Houses and for any special
functions such as the Royal Garden
Parties, Wimbledon, etc.
There
were four groups of people involved in
running Orchard House, all composed of
supervisors who had served in the teashops
and were regarded as specialists in their
particular field. There was the Food
Group, responsible for promoting the sale
of foodstuffs, for the handling of food
and the drawing up of tariffs, and for
general liaison with the Cadby Hall
Kitchens and Bakery departments and the
Provincial Bakeries. The approval of the
directors had to be obtained before any
new dishes were included, or left off, the
tariff. The Equipment Group were
responsible for the installation of
services and new equipment in the teashops
or the Orchard House training equipment.
The Research Group handled mechanical
experiments with the object of saving time
and space in a teashop, where both were
always limited; for example a milk pourer
was devised which fitted over four cups so
that in one operation each cup was filled
with the correct quantity of milk. This
group also planned seating accommodation,
and worked out how goods could be best
displayed on the Help-Yourself-Counter
both to save the customer's time and to
get them through quicker. The
Administration dealt with all queries and
emergencies which arose in the teashops
and for which manageresses needed help.
During and after the Second World War
teashop allocations of rationed goods were
also worked out at Orchard House, as were
the arrangements for catering of large
parties. The welfare and health of the
staff were well provided for in the Clinic
and Welfare Office. A doctor and trained
nurse was always in attendance and, on the
welfare side, trained assistants were
available to advise and help whenever
needed.
Most
of the teashop staff were engaged at
Orchard House and it was there they would
go should they leave the company. It was
desirable therefore to maintain here, the
staff records and wage particulars of the
employees concerned. In addition, since
the Teashop Management had their offices
in the West End, it was the obligation of
the office to provide them with various
office services without which, a large
department could not function
efficiently.
One
of the main jobs was the calculation of
teashop staff wages and the preparation of
authorities for their payment out of the
takings from the shops. For this purpose,
a Powers Samas automatic punched card
system was installed (1949), the only such
equipment in use in the Group. These
machines printed attendance sheets in
duplicate which were sent to the shops
where manageresses entered daily
attendance details of staff. From these
the wages clerks extended the various
payments to be made in respect of the
attendance shown and calculated the
gross/net wages due. Documents were then
sent to the manageresses authorising them
to pay out the wages shown, from the
shops' takings. This all changed in
1954/55 when the LEO I computer took over
the task of payroll and the clerks were
reduced in number and re-located to Cadby
Hall.
The
records for all teashop staff up to and
including the rank of manageress were kept
by the clerks of the payroll section who
were responsible for ensuring that
employees were engaged at the correct rate
of pay, that wage increases authorities
were originated when due, and that
references were taken up and given. Other
duties included the compilation of holiday
lists and authorisation of holiday
payments when due, and the origination of
lists of teashop employees entitled to
various privileges for long service. The
Section was also responsible for
controlling staff deductions, the stamping
of National Insurance cards, the
application for railway passes for cheap
travel for teashop employees, and issuing
of Lyons Club membership cards.
In
the General Section the clerks were
responsible for the miscellaneous work of
the office. They dealt with the
summarisation and dissection of wages and
controlled pension fund contributions,
staff loans, and National Savings. The
Statistical Group prepared labour turnover
and other figures for management, enabling
them to determine labour and wage
policies. The Teashop Treasury was part of
this Group. The Copying Group was a
miniature printing works which could turn
out printed material for the teashops at a
moments notice.
There
was also an office for controlling teashop
reports which were received daily and
varied in content. It was the job of May
King to decide which director(s) would be
interested in their content. The job had
to be done as quickly as possible as any
delay could result in how a customer's
complaint was handled. There were several
thousand reports over the period of a
month and all had to be dealt with. The
report typists were often confused with
some of the teashop report jargon like
what was a 'long Tom' (a metal tube
containing ice, which was put into milk
churns to keep the milk cool) or what was
a 'donkey rack' (a rack for dishes or
food).
In
January 1963 the Teashops Department
became part of the newly-formed Catering
Division. A vast modernisation programme
had begun aimed at giving teashop and
restaurants a new look. Decentralisation
was an important element in the thinking
behind the formation of the Catering
Division. Teashops were grouped together
with other catering establishments in
autonomous regional units. From being the
headquarters of teashops only, Orchard
House was designated the headquarters of
the Catering Division as a whole. Although
many of the departments which previously
worked there had already moved out to
their own regional offices other moved in
and one of these was London Steak Houses
Ltd. A section remained at Orchard House
for managerial and supervisory training
and this was run by Miss D. Winston and
Miss P. Clancy. Miss Winston was concerned
with the training of assistant
manageresses for teashops and Miss Clancy
was responsible for the training of
superintendents and waitresses for the
Corner Houses. In November 1967 the
training centre at Orchard House moved to
new premises at 93 Newman Street, London.
The training centre was on the first floor
of the building in which London Steak
Houses once occupied the fourth floor. The
premises had four lecture rooms, a
projection room for showing company films,
staff offices and a training officers'
room. Some of the rooms were
air-conditioned. The new facilities were
designed for administration courses for
Steak House and Corner House management
trainees. There was a medical department
on the same floor with a well-equipped
dispensary.
In
1969 The Jolyon Restaurants began to
appear and this was the decline of the
teashop era. A change of name and decor
did not revitalise the magic of the
teashops of pre-war days and the Jolyon
Restaurants were short-lived and
closed
©
Peter Bird 2005
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