Photographs
Shops
BARNET. Spencer and Airles, near the bus station. "Spence and Airles .. had one of those overhead money devices that pinged the money in a little canister to the cash kiosk and your change came back the same way in reverse." Barnet - a trip down Memory Lane facebook group, 17/12/04
BISHOPS STORTFORD. Bon Marche. "A store which had a similar arrangement was Bon Marche, a department store in Bishop's Stortford, where Clinton Cards are." Dunmow Observer, 30 Mar. 1995, p. 18
BISHOPS STORTFORD. Co-op. "Another store which had a similar change system was the Co-op store at Bishop's Stortford, which stood at the junction of Station Road and South Street... I used to be fascinated as the change carriers hurtled across the store, screeching particularly when they rounded a curve on the way to the office." Dunmow Observer, 30 Mar. 1995, p. 18
BISHOPS STORTFORD. Holland and Barrett. "For an impressionable child there was a fascinating overhead cable operated change machine which involved the counter assistant placing your money and supporting bill into a small container, pulling a wooden handle, and propelling it to a wire cage in another part of the shop. You then took your change from the venerable old trout in the cage who also issued a receipt." Jon Dudley in posting to English Buildings blog, 20/7/12
BOREHAMWOOD. Co-op. Cash carrier in 1940s. Bren Thompson Simpson in posting to Facebook
HARPENDEN. A.Anscombe &
Sons, Leyton Road. I visited in September 1977. Rapid Wire system.
There were 6 stations - 1 upstairs served by a cash lift. It had been filmed
for Anglia TV. "This England", Spring 1975 has photographs
of cashier and service point. Also article by Eric Meadows in "Hertfordshire
Countryside". The shop closed in 1981. Photograph of a carrier
in Evans and Lawson. Photograph of cashier's equipment at St Albans Museum website and Harpenden History website. Exterior at Harpenden History website
• Mrs P Hofton of Hatching Green wrote in 1975: 'I never thought of it as unique, but when shopping with my two small grandchildren in Anscombe’s they were fascinated by the money being put in a little box, the handle pulled and the box whizzing along the wire to the cash desk. They were even more excited when the box returned with my change, and would both have spent the morning happily buying one item at a time in order to see the railway working!' Harpenden History website
HERTFORD. Neales Bon Marche. "The old-fashioned overhead wire system". Hertford Museum Newsletter, No. 41, Sept. 2004
LETCHWORTH. Co-op, Letchworth Garden City. "Everything for household convenience is on display in the Co-operative Store in this 1925 interior view. In the centre can be seen the cable and pulley system [i.e. cash ball system] for dispatching cash into the central cash office, a feature affectionately remembered by many older residents." Letchworth Garden City. (Archive Photographs series). Compiled by Mervyn Miller. Stroud: Chalford, 1995, p.57
NEW BARNET. Gristwood and Son, Market Place. "We have installed a cash railway. This was made necessary in order to cope with our rapidly-increasing business." Barnet Press, 23 Jan. 1909, p. 5
ROYSTON. Thomas Goodman (Royston & District Supply Stores), High Street. "Have you sen the Meteor Cash Railway at work in these stores?" Herts & Cambs Reporter, 16 Nov. 1906, p. 5
SAWBRIDGEWORTH. Forest Stores, Church Street/Knight Street. "Forrest Stores on the corner of Church Street is alas no more. Latterly Forrest Stores was just a grocers and off licence but at one time it also had a drapery department... Until quite late it retained the old fashioned cash carriers which whizzed over the shoppers' heads on wire stretched between the sales counters and the cash desk." Herts and Essex Observer, 6 Jul. 1989, p. 49
• " The cashier was in a booth, and your payment was sent to her from the shop assistant who would put your payment in a carrier on an overhead wire, pull a handle, and off it went to the cashier. Then your change came back the same way. I'm probably going back 60 years!" Jennie Toms in Facebook, 5 Apr. 2015
WALTHAM
CROSS. Fishpools, 115 High Street. Reported to have pneumatic
tube system in 2005. ChristineW in posting to Daily
Mail chat, 17/7/05
WATFORD. Cawdells, High Street. Pneumatic tube system. Watford Observer website
WATFORD. Clements (drapers). "The service is speeded up with the latest pneumatic cash tube system." Buckinghamshire Examiner, 4 Jan. 1929, p. 12
• "Required at once .. cashier accustomed to LAmson Pneumatic Tubes." Leeds Mercury, 14 Mar. 1936, p. 2
WATFORD. Trewins. "I worked at Trewins in Watford during 1946... Back then when I wrote a sales ticket, I would put the ticket and money in a tube. It would shoot up to the floor above." John Lewis Memory Store
indicates systems which
are still there (as far as I know) though they may not be working.