J. Lyons and Co.
J. Lyons & Co. was a British restaurant chain store, food manufacturing, and hotel conglomerate founded in 1884 by Joseph Lyons and his brothers in law, Isidore and Montague Gluckstein. Lyons’ first teashop opened in Piccadilly, London in 1894, and from 1909 they developed into a chain of teashops, with the firm becoming a staple of the High Street in the UK. At its peak the chain numbered around 200 cafes.[1] The teashops provided for tea and coffee, with food choices consisting of hot dishes and sweets, cold dishes and sweets, and buns, cakes and rolls.
Making their first cakes and pastries in 1894, several Lyons cake products are still available on grocers' shelves, including Lyons' treacle tart, Lyons' Bakewell tart, Lyons' Battenberg, and Lyons' trifle sponges, which are sold by Premier Foods. The company is also known for its pioneering use of computers in the office.
Origins and early history
The company began as a collaboration between a group of entrepreneurs, the professional artist Joseph Lyons and his brothers in law, Isidore and Montague Gluckstein, as a spin off from the Salmon & Gluckstein tobacco company.[2] In 1894 the company started a teashop in Piccadilly, London, and from 1909 developed this into a chain of teashops which would ultimately number around 200 locations.[1] The company also ran high class restaurants, founding the Trocadero in 1895, and hotels including the Strand Palace, opened in 1909, the Regent Palace, opened in 1915, and the Cumberland Hotel, opened in 1933, all in London. In 1918, to increase sales in northern England, Lyons bought the old established tea company Horniman & Sons.[3] From the 1930s Lyons began to develop a pioneering range of teas, biscuits and cakes that were sold in grocery stores across the world.[4] Lyons was appointed to run the company, and it was named after him.[5]
J. Lyons & Co. was a pioneer in introducing computers to business. Between 1951 and 1963, the company manufactured and sold a range of LEO (Lyons Electronic Office) computers.[6]
Products and image
The company was a substantial food manufacturer, with factories at Cadby Hall in Hammersmith, and from 1921 at Greenford, producing bread, cakes, pies, tea, coffee and ice cream. Lyons branded cakes included treacle tarts, Lyons Bakewell tart, Lyons Battenberg, and Lyons trifle sponges.[7]
To the public, J. Lyons & Co. were best known for their chain of
Corner Houses
Lyons' Corner Houses, which first appeared in 1909 and remained until 1977, were noted for their
Restaurants
As well as the tea shops and Corner Houses, Lyons ran other large restaurants such as the
Hotels
The Regent Palace Hotel, Glasshouse Street, London was operated by Strand Hotels Limited, a subsidiary of J. Lyons and Company and opened on 16 May 1915. Strand Hotels also operated the Cumberland Hotel (Marble Arch, London), Kingsley Hotel, Park Court Hotel, Windsor Hotel, White's Hotel and the Strand Palace Hotel after the inception of Strand Hotels Limited. The last London hotel that they operated until the demise of the group in the mid-1970s was the Tower Hotel situated by Tower Bridge in London.
Biscuits company
In 1938, Lyons purchased the Bee Bee Biscuit Company, which manufactured
Other activities
Supporting the war effort
The
Princess Elizabeth and Philip Mountbatten's wedding cake
Princess Elizabeth and Philip Mountbatten were offered many cakes from well-wishers around the world for their wedding on 20 November 1947.[12] Of these they accepted only 12, including one from J. Lyons and Co.[13]
They created a three-tiered cake, mounted on a silver stand, made by F E Jacobs, chief decorator of J Lyons’ Ornamental Department. It stood 1.8 metres high and weighed 63 kg.[14] The first and second tiers featured specially commissioned 10 cm blue and white Wedgwood Jasper vases set in alcoves behind silver pillars, with smaller vases on the third tier. The cake's panels depicted Princess Elizabeth's coat of arms, the couple's initials and a Naval crown. Atop the third tier sat a larger Jasper vase, filled with fresh flowers and trailing orange blossom.[14]
Contribution to computing in business
The top management of Lyons, with its background in the use of mechanical adding machines, saw the necessity of new electrical computers for organising the distribution of cakes and other highly perishable goods. They, therefore, substantially financed the University of Cambridge's
Decline
The company was losing money in the 1960s but remained under the control of the Salmon family, descended from a founding partner. Lyons began to close some of its London tea shops and hotels; in 1963 it also merged its LEO Computers business with English Electric's computer interests to form the jointly owned English Electric LEO.
In 1964, Lyons sold their half-stake; and English Electric merged the company with Marconi's computer interests to form English Electric LEO Marconi Computers. A continuing problem in the British computer industry was both lack of investment capital and competition with the much larger U.S. computer companies, such as IBM. English Electric LEO Marconi Computers merged with other companies to form International Computers Limited (ICL) which was bought by Fujitsu in 1990.
In 1978, Lyons was acquired by
The J. Lyons & Co. papers are now stored in the London Metropolitan Archives. The niece and nephew of the Gluckstein brothers were Gluck, a painter; and Louis Gluckstein, a Conservative politician. A descendant of the Salmon side of the original partnership is Nigella Lawson.[19]
Notable employees
Former
Peter Bird began work operating the LEO computer and rose to be a director of Lyons Computer Services. He later wrote a history of the company and its computers.[21]
Leadership
The chairmen of J. Lyons were:[22]
- 1894–1917 Sir Joseph Lyons
- 1917–1922 Montague Gluckstein
- 1923–1928 Alfred Salmon
- 1928–1941 Sir Isidore Salmon MP
- 1941–1950 Harry Salmon JP
- 1950–1956 Major Montague Isidore Gluckstein
- 1956–1960 Isidore Montague Gluckstein
- 1960–1965 Barnett Alfred Salmon
- 1965–1968 Sir Samuel Isidore SalmonJP (Mayor of Hammersmith 1968/69)
- 1968–1972 Geoffrey Salmon
- 1972–1977 Brian Lawson Salmon
- 1977–1981 Neil Lawson Salmon
See also
- Horniman's Tea, once the largest tea company in the world, selling prepackaged tea, once owned by Lyons
- List of tea houses,
- J. Lyons and Co., Greenford
References
- ^ a b "Bawden and battenberg: the Lyons teashop lithographs". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 June 2022.
- ^ Joan Comay, Who's who in Jewish History: After the Period of the Old Testament (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995) p. 240
- ^ "J. Lyons & Co. The Tea Department". Retrieved 26 July 2020.
- ^ Roy Poter, London: A Social History (Harvard: Harvard University Press, 1998)
- ^ Joan Comay, Who's who in Jewish History: After the Period of the Old Testament (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995) p.240
- ^ a b "Leo Computers Society". www.leo-computers.org.uk. Retrieved 27 May 2018.
- ^ "How to make the perfect battenberg cake". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 October 2019.
- ISBN 978-0-907325-47-5.
- ^ "J. Lyons & Co catering outlets". Retrieved 28 March 2009.
- ^ a b Bird, Peter (2002). "Symbol Biscuits Ltd (Lyons Biscuits Ltd)". Retrieved 5 November 2007.
- ^ Bates, 1946
- ^ "And then lose count!". Reveille. London, UK. 28 October 1947. p. 3.
- ^ "Princess Elizabeth's Wedding Cake; With a Wedge Prepared". Illustrated London News. London, UK. 22 November 1947. p. 8.
- ^ a b Christine Flinn. "Queen Elizabeth's Wedding Cakes". www.christineflinn.co.uk. Retrieved 3 September 2022.
- ^ "Why Lyon's Leo was the Met Office's cup of tea". The Times. Retrieved 26 June 2022.
- ^ London School of Economics. "About L E O". Archived from the original on 11 January 2011. Retrieved 30 March 2009.
- ^ "Google's Eric Schmidt criticises education in the UK". BBC News. 26 August 2011.
- ^ "Lyons". Grocery Partners. Retrieved 27 June 2022.
- ^ Bilmes, Alex. Say what you like about Nigella Lawson Archived 7 March 2005 at the Wayback Machine. Q, 2001. Retrieved 29 September 2021.
- ^ "Margaret Thatcher". Number 10 Downing Street - The official site of the British Prime Minister.
- ^ Land, Frank (10 September 2017). "Peter Bird obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 September 2017.
- ^ Baird, Peter (25 January 2012). "Site describing J. Lyons & Co national caterer and food manufacturer".
Further reading
- Bates, H. E. (1946). The Tinkers of Elstow: the Story of the Royal Ordnance Factory run by J. Lyons and Company Limited for the Ministry of Supply for the World War of 1939–1945. Privately published,
- Bird, Peter J. (1994). LEO: the First Business Computer. Wokingham: Hasler Publishing Limited. ISBN 0-9521651-0-4.
- Bird, Peter (2000). The First Food Empire. A History of J. Lyons & Co. Phillmore. Chichester, West Sussex. ISBN 1-86077-132-7.
- Ferry, Georgina (2003). A Computer Called LEO. Lyons Teashops and the World's First Office Computer. Fourth Estate. London. ISBN 1-84115-186-6.)
- ISBN 0-07-009501-9,
- Harding, Thomas (2019). Legacy : one family, a cup of tea and the company that took on the world. London: William Heinemann. ISBN 978-1785150890.
External links
- "Designing Britain 1945–1975: Lyons Corner House". Archived from the original on 12 February 2004. Retrieved 8 March 2004.
- "The papers of John Simmons". (relating to the Lyons computerization)
- "LEO Computers Society".