Shops

ALDERSHOT. Thomas White (dept. store), Union Street. Pneumatic tube system. In 1961 became Army & Navy and store was closed. Photograph taken in early 1950s in Moss and Turton
• "Offices: The pine panelling to Lawson [sic] Cash Carrier Office, with muranese upper glazing, fanlight and doors. £39.10.0." Valuation of furnishings, fixtures and fittings, Feb/May 1957, p. 42

ANDOVER. Co-op, Bridge Street. Operating in 1975 according to article in This England.
• Pneumatic tube system. Maureen Kerleau

BASINGSTOKE. T. Burberry & Sons. "The cash railway has been installed, having stations at each counter." Hants and Berks Gazette, 25 Aug. 1906, p. 8

BASINGSTOKE. Lanhams. "Love the way put cash in the tube and it would all go to the cash office." Patricia Shephard in posting to Facebook

COSHAM. Haberdashers near Post Office. Wire system in 1950s. Malcolm Lee

EASTLEIGH. Co-op. The co-op in Eastleigh had one of those [cash carriers]. Pat Daniels in posting to Facebook

EASTLEIGH. E. Rowe. "By instructions from Mr. E. Rowe, retiring, 19 and 21, Leigh-Road, Eastleigh. Notice of sale by public auction.. "The Lampson" [sic] Rapid wire cash carrier as erected." Hampshire Advertiser, 18 Jun. 1927, p. 1

FAREHAM. Dodges (drapers). Cash carrier. Colin Hancock in posting to Facebook

FAREHAM. Keasts. "When I was a small child [1950s] we often went to Keasts in West Street, Fareham. It was a toy shop, with prams and children's clothes on the first floor. What was even more fascinating than the toys, indeed I don't remember the toys, was the way when you paid, the assistant put the money in a wooden container, reached up and screwed it, or fitted it in, to another part, and then it went whizzing off, to come whizzing back shortly with the change." Elisabeth Ohnishi

LYMINGTON. Bennett (draper). "Situations vacant... Cashier. Young lady (age 16 to 18) wanted for Drapery department (cash railway system). New Milton Advertiser, 6 Sep. 1941, p. 4
• "By then she was working as a cashier at Bennett's the drapers, on the High Street site now occupied by Tesco's - and in those days the counter assistants would place customers' money insdie a small round canister, which was attached to an overhead track... One pull on a sprung lever would send the money whizzing to the cash desk, and the procedure was reversed when the cashier returned the receipt and any change." New Milton Advertiser, 9 Jan. 1988, p. 4

NEWPORT, IoW. F. Burton (drapers), 132 High Street. "Burton's new drapery store is now open, High Street and Holyrood Street, Newport... Premises arranged in departments with pneumatic and overhead cash railways by Lamson Store Service Co." Isle of Wight County Press, 16 Mar. 1907, p. 7
• "Newport's new drapery store is now open... The latest American labour-saving contrivances for making change, by the Lamson Store Service Company, Ltd. These include overhead cash railways and the new pneumatic compressed air tube system (the only one in the Island). Ibid., 15 June 1907, p. 7

PORTSEA. P.S.Cooper, 145 Queen Street. "Re P.S.Cooper... Young and Wallis will sell by auction.. the draper's trade fixtures and fittings, including .. Lamson's patent cash carrier." Portsmouth Evening News, 5 July 1913, p.4

PORTSMOUTH. Will Browns. Rapid Wire system in 1940s. J.Tupper

PORTSMOUTH. Drinkwater Brothers (drapers), King's Road. "Young lady .. for cash desk (cash railway)." Portsmouth Evening News, 16 Oct. 1916, p. 4

PORTSMOUTH. Handleys. "Little metal tubes whizzed across the ceiling." More memories of Portsmouth

PORTSMOUTH. Landport Drapery Bazaar, Commercial Road. Original store opened in 1870. Destroyed by fire in 1908 and rebuilt. In 1965 purchased by United Drapery Stores and in 1982 converted to an Allders. Sold to Debenhams in 2005. "A Pneumatic Cash System serving 33 departments with 20 stations and 1½ miles of brass tubing through which shoot 100 cash carriers at an average of 2,000 feet per minute." Portsmouth Evening News, 8 Oct. 1913, p.9

• Lamson pneumatic tube system, used for internal communication and till clearance. In September 2003 I saw five PneuArt stations on the first floor, all recessed into stanchions, and six on the second floor as well as some exposed vertical pipes on stanchions. The ground floor is extensively renovated and some stations may be behind cupboard doors. In February 2008 some terminals were still visible on the second floor, painted to blend in with their surroundings - as were the tubes.

PORTSMOUTH. McIlroys. "Another firm which is contributing largely to customer service is the Lamson Pneumatic Tube Co., Ltd., who have fitted a new centralized control system to ensure speedy and accurate facilities for change-giving, which is a part of almost every sale, and sometimes gives rise to delay and annoyance." Portsmouth Evening News, 27 Sep. 1933, p. 3

PORTSMOUTH. W. Pink & Sons, 110 Commercial Road. "Formerly in the three old shops three separate cash desks were in use. About fifteen years ago they were replaced by one elevated cash desk and a cash 'railway'. The railway was eventually replaced by pneumatic tubes, which carried the money upstairs to a cash room in the offices. All these systems are now discarded and National Cash Registers of the latest pattern are used." Portsmouth Evening News, 25 Nov. 1909, p.2
• "For Sale... Lamson Paragon Cash Railway in good condition, complete, in good condition, with stationery." Ibid., 16 Feb. 1920, p.7

PORTSMOUTH. Portsea Island Mutual Co-operative Society, Co-operative House, Frattan Road. "A gigantic vacuum-cleaning plant is incorporated with the 22,000 feet of pneumatic cash tubing, and cleaning pipes can be plugged in at over 100 points in the Building." Portsmouth Evening News, 3 Sep. 1937, p.11
• "The above illustration shows one of the 83 counter terminals of the Pneumatic Tube Cash System, where thousands of pounds will be conveyed to the Cash Office at a speed of 40 feet per second... For any method of cash centralisation and industrial vacuum cleaning utilise specialised experience and consult the Dart Cash Carrier Co., Ltd., Pneumatic Tube Engineers, Stoke-on-Trent. Ibid., p.12

ROMSEY. Co-op (?). "There was a central glass-framed counting house connected to all the sales counters round the edge of the shop by a radial system of overhead wires." Chris Coffin

RYDE, IoW. Hills. "The mighty Hills Stores, where kids like me stared at the ceiling transfixed as pouches of cash whizzed from counter to cash desk and back again via an intricate network of pulleys and wires." Isle of Wight County Press, 16 Mar. 2012

SHANKLIN, IoW. Baileys, High Street. "What I liked about Bailey's in Shanklin was the machinery used in paying for, say, the pair of socks being purchased for me. The money was handed over and wraped in an invoice, placed in a cylindrical container, and whizzed to the cashier along overhead wires, then, after a pause for reckoning, the projectile containing the receipt and change came rocketing back." Anthony Bailey. England first and last ( London: Faber, 1985) p.47

SOUTHAMPTON. Frasers, East Street. "Frasers used to use a pneumatic system (Lampson Tubes?) which wisked your cash and invoice from the payment till up to the accounts dept. The receipt was prepared and any change would be returned in a little canister." 'Spyinthesky' in posting to Saintsweb: Southampton nostalgia, 16/4/10

SOUTHAMPTON. Edwin Jones. Now Debenhams. "There used to be a pneumatic tube system in the old Edwin Jones store too." 'Bridge too far' in posting to Saintsweb: Southampton nostalgia, 16/4/10

SOUTHAMPTON. Mayes. Later Owen Owen. "Mayes also had one [a pneumatic tube system]." Eastleigh SoulBoy in posting to Saintsweb: Southampton nostalgia, 5/5/10

SOUTHAMPTON. Milwards shoe shop, Above Bar. Cash carrier. Linda Dine in posting to Facebook

SOUTHAMPTON. Sheriff and Ward. "A treat to lovers of machinery has been afforded this week by our enterprising townsmen, Messrs. Sheriff and Ward, who have attracted crowds by their exhibition of Lamson's Cash Railway, a piece of beautiful mechanism, a sort of aerial railway for conveying cash from an assistant and customer to the cashier's desk... In our townsmen's large establishment there are three main lines with an up and down train, points, junctions, and other machine details... There are nine stations on the line, each with an elevator to lift the travelling sphere on to the line, and there is a basket to receive the returning sphere with its change... Had Mr. Lamson lived some two or three centuries back he would certainly have been suspected of a Mephistophelian alliance. Messrs. Sheriff and Ward's kindness in allowing a view has been highly appreciated." Hampshire Advertiser, 24 Apr. 1886, p.7

SOUTHAMPTON. Tyrell & Greens. "There was one [pneumatic tube system] in Tyrell & Greens back in the '70's. As a young lad it fascinated the hell out of me." 'Dimond Geezer' in posting to Saintsweb: Southampton nostalgia, 16/4/10

SOUTHSEA. Clifford and Attree, Kings Road. "[Donations to Portsmouth Hospital Fund:] £1 5s. from Messrs. Clifford and Attree.. change left behind in cash railway." Portsmouth Evening News, 26 Aug. 1890, p. 2

SOUTHSEA. Co-op. Cash carrier. Chris Woods in posting to Facebook.

SOUTHSEA. John Dyers, Kings Road. "I saw a long tube which is called the Lamson Pneumatic Tube. This is for sending bills up to the counting house, which is in the charge of one assistant. These tubes run right under the road to the other Dyers shop. Through this the service is so swift that sometimes the ball containing the change on its return journey will bounce at the unwary assistant's feet." Portsmouth Evening News, 22 Oct. 1932, p. 3

SOUTHSEA. George Handley, Palmerston Road. "Young lady required to use cash railway." Daily Telegraph, 2 Apr. 1895, p. 9

SOUTHSEA. Knight and Lee. Palmerston Road. Cash carrier. Chris Woods in posting to Facebook.

SOUTHSEA. Milwards. I remember cash carriers flying round the room in shops. There was one in Milward's shoeshop in Southsea, not far from Handley's. Jon1Lambert on  LibraryThing website

TOTTON. A butcher's shop. Cash carrier. Volunteer at Seaford Museum

WINCHESTER. Sheriff and Ward. "A treat to lovers of machinery has been afforded this week by our enterprising townsmen, Messrs. Sheriff and Ward, who have attracted crowds by their exhibition of Lamson's Cash Railway, a piece of beautiful mechanism, a sort of aerial railway for conveying cash from an assistant and customer to the cashier's desk." Hampshire Advertiser, 24 Apr. 1886, p.7

indicates systems which are still there (as far as I know) though they may not be working.