Lyon's Corner Houses

Undated photograph of J. Lyons & Co's tea room at 14 North Street, Brighton. The company's tea rooms were hugely popular. They were also known for the care taken in the design and decoration of their shops. In spite of its success throughout much of the century, Lyons & Co's fortunes declined in the late 1960s. By the early 1980s, the company had been broken up and sold to various buyers.
Royal Pavilion and Museums Brighton and Hove

Art deco frontages

In the 1950s, Brighton had two Lyon’s tea shops; one on the corner at the bottom of St James’s Street – a real ‘Lyon’s Corner House’ – and the other in North Street. Lyon’s tea shops were instantly recognisable by their art deco frontages. The shops were always painted in white, with gold lettering across the top of the window. They were typically fairly huge, inside, with rows of formica topped tables. My mother often took me to the Lyons tea shop in North Street when I was young. I always had the same things: a raspberry milkshake and a dish of jelly with artificial cream. It always felt like a luxury. Jelly was associated with parties – although I never went to many.

Coffee cup trick

As I remember, they were always busy. In those days, almost everyone smoked. The cafe must have been full of smoke from pipes and cigarettes. We did not notice it at the time, of course, as this was the norm. Lyon’s coffee came in two versions: the small cup or the large one. Once we stood behind a man who performed an odd experiment. He asked for a small coffee and a large cup. He poured the contents of the small cup into the large. The ‘small’ coffee filled the large cup. Thus there was only really one sized cup of coffee. It was just the shape of the cups that seemed to make a difference. He must have rehearsed this. Whether or not Lyon’s had a rethink about their cups, remains a mystery. But I was very impressed.

Do you remember Lyon’s tea shops? Please share your memories by posting a comment below

Comments about this page

  • I can remember going in Lyons with my mum. One at the corner of St James street, one at North Road, and one at Western Road.

    By Dennis Fielder (22/08/2015)
  • I used to visit the one in St James’s Street fairly often. I recall that in late sixties or early seventies, they increased prices at the weekends. On one occasion, I went with my father, and he had a row with the manager over it. It was probably only a couple of pence, but as my father said, we were regular customers, who lived in Brighton, not day trippers from somewhere else. I don’t think we went there again.

    By Derek Evans (23/08/2015)
  • Perhaps the small cups were meant for the ladies, Philip. My mother used to take me to a Lyons in Notting Hill Gate where I usually had tea and a millefeuille slice. Sometimes we had lunch at another branch which consisted of steak and kidney pie in a brown dish, which had to be carefully decanted onto the plate together with separate veg. It always gave me indigestion even at that young age! I always thought the tea was good, however.They did try to resurrect the brand in the 80s, and a branch opened near Trafalgar Square with the girls in their old-style uniforms, but it never took off with so much competition from the various burger bars, Wimpy, and McDonalds.

    By Stefan Bremner-Morris (23/08/2015)
  • Hello Stefan, I lived in Notting Hill for a little while, in the mid 60s. I had a tiny room in Elgin Crescent. Lyon’s would have been a treat but we were much too cool to go to one. We lived, mostly, on fruit and veg left over from a day in Portobello Road. A steak and kidney pie would have been much better. 

    By Philip (23/08/2015)
  • On balance I think your fruit intake was probably the best option, Philip! We didn’t live in Notting Hill, but I went to schools in Edge Street, and we dropped into the Lyons on the way back to Queensway, Bayswater. I notice in my local Waitrose that Millefeuille slices retail at around £2.50. A far cry from the few pennies we paid back in the ’50s! The pie was consumed in the Putney branch after we moved to Roehampton. That was my last visit.

    By Stefan Bremner-Morris (24/08/2015)
  • I remember the Lyon’s Corner Houses mentioned in Brighton with affection; always just a lovely reminder of days soon to be going. When I lived in London in the ’70s I worked as a ganger for a builder who got a contract to build a Chinese restaurant on the site of the Lyon’s Corner House on the corner of Coventry Street and Rupert Street in the west end. At the time the Corner House had been used as a disco, but after a fire it was closed down. When the restaurant was finished I believe it was the biggest Chinese restaurant in Europe. Anyway one of my jobs at one time was to demolish the beautiful toilets, and the ladies’ rooms and cloakrooms and all the rest of it to make way for more modern facilities. I was really heartbroken at the destruction of mahogany woodwork (all to be burned) and marble sink units and so much ornate craftsmanship that was there. Nothing was to be saved as it was deemed by the very rich Chinese owner that it would be a waste of time carefully dismantling everything to be saved. The building must have been a hive of industry in it’s heyday. There was one floor for the bakery, another floor for the washing of plates and everything to do with catering. There were rollers carrying the washing up through copper water spray tunnels and driers. The building was like a ship with many decks. Many a time I would wander around in my lunch break and just go down to the basement and up to the other floors just looking in wonder at the immensity of it all. It was a beautiful building inside.

    By Mick Peirson (24/08/2015)
  • I presume that was part of the Trocadero development, Mick? Not one of London’s greatest architectural or cultural gifts to the capital!

    By Stefan Bremner-Morris (27/08/2015)
  • I worked there in about 1974/75 Stefan, and you are right, it was part of that whole complex. I believe just before we developed the site it was also a bowling alley as well as a disco. If my memory serves me right the main entrance was right at the bottom of Rupert Street almost on the angle of the two streets. There was a wide staircase gently sloping up to the main hall. There were also two doors a little way up Coventry Street which I think were fire exits.

    By Mick Peirson (29/08/2015)
  • I remember my older sister used to work at the Lyons in North Street in the early 1950s.  I was about 11 or 12 years old and would often meet her after she was finished her work at Lyons and we’d take in a film at either the Regent or the Essoldo across the street. It was a lovely little tea shop. Anyone remember the Martha Gunn tea shop, it was somewhere in the Lanes and had the best cream eclairs and other delicious tea cakes?

    By Sylvia Stickel (06/09/2015)
  • I can remember going to the Lyons Corner Shop at St James Street as my father was the manager at The Home and Colonial and we used to go and have tea there. Next door to the LCH there was a Maynards sweet shop and I used to enjoy going there. Those were the days.

    By Margaret Wesche (08/09/2015)
  • As a five year old mother used to take me to Lyon’s Corner House at the bottom of St. James Street. One day I could not contain myself when the lady on the next table drunk her tea out of the saucer. Mum, look at that rude lady I called out. Mother said SSSShhhh, but little children tell the truth.

    By Julian Saul (16/09/2015)
  • But was it rude in those days? We had a gardener when we lived in Sussex Square about that time and he always used to drink his tea out of the saucer when it was too hot. He told me it was called ‘saucering’.

    Technically correct I suppose as this gave a larger surface area to cool the hot tea.

    As an aside; in 1947 my grandfather had a 1938 Daimler straight eight with Sedanca de Ville coachwork by Gurney Nutting or Barkers I think which had been specially made for Jo Lyons. FLK2 was the number. I’ve got a photo of it somewhere. It had been stored throughout the War and was in immaculate condition. The only car I have ever seen with felt bladed wipers on the inside of the windscreen for use when the screen got steamed up.

    By Tim Sargeant (17/09/2015)
  • I once got told off by a lady in the Lyons in Putney because I was staring at her due to the speed with which she was eating her meal. “Don’t you know it’s rude to stare like that, young man?” She said, glaring at my mother sitting next to me, who mumbled an apology! We laughed when she left, but it was fairly naughty of me.

    By Stefan Bremner-Morris (17/09/2015)
  • As the Front Shop Manager at Coventry Street Corner House, I recall the high standards required for the shop assistants where there was a waiting list for available positions. Sadly these standards no longer exist as indeed the service we provided to customers throughout London. Many will remember the patisserie counter with its selection of gateaux unique to Lyon’s Corner Houses.

    By Donald Green (17/06/2016)
  • Stefan mentions some time ago that the Lyon’s company couldn’t compete with other outlets such as Wimpy. Interestingly, Wimpy was bought by J Lyon’s and Co in the ’50s and was marketed as an alternative for the emerging ‘teenager’ who preferred coffee houses and milk bars to old fashioned tea rooms. It was named after J Wellington Wimpy of the Popeye cartoon!

    By Helen (17/06/2016)
  • What Helen said regarding Lyon’s buying Wimpy in the ’50s is interesting. As mentioned above, when I worked in the old Lyon’s Corner House in Coventry Street in the ’70s, part of the building housed a large Wimpy restaurant at the time, just around the corner from Rupert Street going towards Piccadilly.

    By Mick Peirson (18/06/2016)
  • To avoid confusion, there were only four Corner Houses: on Coventry St; The Strand; Oxford St and a Maison Lyons at Marble Arch – all in London. The other establishments were Lyons tea shops.

    By Donald Green (28/08/2016)
  • Hello Donald, I believe there was a Maison Lyons on Shaftsbury Avenue too. 

    By Helen (28/08/2016)
  • I worked in Lyons in North Street between 1965-66, the manageress was Mrs Forster and assistant managers were Mrs Chick and Mrs Shakespeare. I also worked at their shop at the bottom of St James’s Street. One of the things I remember when I helped out in the front shop (which sold bread and cakes) was that we had to weigh the bread every morning. If it was underweight it went back! My wages were £4 7s 6d a week. Other people I remember working with were Madeline Challoner, Margaret House, Eileen Fogden’s, Peter Jarvis, Mrs Jane Ward, Mrs Minter (Minty) and Doug who worked in the kitchen.

    By Jeanette Chapman (26/01/2017)
  • I worked for Lyons in 1967/68/69. That was just at the time that they were closing everything! a bad time for a colleague who was a personnel officer whose job it was to notify staff. I worked in offices, first above the Sloane Square shop, then above Westminster shop.  That was chaotic, especially busy in the summer with school parties. We then moved to Cadby Hall and I transferred from Personel/customer complaints to buying. Great fun getting all the sample stuff in. Also they opened a branch in Brussels, so all the start up was done.  I left in ’69 to go abroad.  Fond memories.

    By Ann Channack (28/03/2017)
  • My Aunty worked as a Waitress at Lyons Tea Room for many years,her name was Mary Burnside.  Sadly she passed away last January 25th this year.  I found a lot of her photographs with the staff at the Lyons.  Very fond memories for her.

     

    By Susan Birkin (25/03/2018)
  • Margaret Wesche’s  reference to the “Home and Colonial” took me back. There used to be one in Gardner street. It made me think back to the shops in that area in the 60s. Who remembers the cut-price shop on the east corner of Kensington Gardens and North Road? I think it was called “Sweet time”although that name may have been used later. In the late 60s it was run by two brothers who I assume were twins. On Christmas Eve each year they came in to get a side of smoked salmon from our fishshop in North Road. John Gower.

    By John Gower (27/03/2018)
  • Does anybody remember Mrs Blackman who was the manageress of the North Street branch of the shop next to Hanningtons? (not the branch near the Clock Tower in North Street). She had beautiful red hair and a lovely personality. This would have been in the early 1970s: 1971 or 1972. I was the contract cleaner working for Chatsworth Cleaning Company. Every morning I would clean the shop windows and floors and she would make me buttered toast and tea which was a nice touch. Above the shop was a hair dressers. There were four J lyons & Co Ltd shops in Brighton: the bottom of St James Street number one, two in North Street, and 72 Western Road. Sadly they closed in the late 70s – that was an end of lovely era.

    By George Sibun (17/07/2019)
  • As a very young boy, I used to occasionally be dragged, kicking and screaming to the dental clinic near the vegetable market. He used a very slow drill controlled by pulleys and belts which was extremely painful. So, to mollify the experience, I was taken for tea and a cake to Lyon’s Tea Shop at the bottom of St James Street. This cost my Mum about a tanner each = 5p. Sometimes the treat would extend to a cup of Horlicks, but that was only after extractions!

    By John Snelling (25/10/2019)
  • Further to my comment above, when I was in the RAF during the ’60s and during my “leave” periods, I used to work in the Lyon’s Corner House at the junction of Oxford St and Tottenham Court Road, where there was a narrow curved street which joined the the above street and road. This was where all the food for Lyon’s satellite tea shops was prepared, loaded on lorries (by YT) and distributed around London and the suburbs.

    By John Snelling (25/10/2019)
  • I remember the Lyons corner houses in London and in Lewisham as I am 76 years old and of the waitresses with their uniforms etc.
    I visited several when they were still on the high streets, with my mother and father and brother for tea etc they were smart or very smart especially the Lyons corner house in or on Marble arch very smart that one was. That was the pinnacle Lyons house . I believe I visited it once as my mother wanted me to see the waitresses; as My mother wore such a uniform when my mother was in service as a maid to a high court judge and his wife and daughter Miss Mary Pity that the corner tea houses all closed down. I also went to the one in Lewisham several times for tea and a cake.

    By Brian Neale (02/04/2020)
  • The Marble Arch Lyons Corner house was absolutely wonderful. I would travel up to London in the sixties to visit my fiance and would meet him outside the Cumberland Hotel. As he was very busy at his factory in Braden Street W9 I usually had a long wait and found the atmosphere very exciting as an 18 year old. The food at the Corner House was amazing. Don’t think I have ever had steaks as superb as the ones I had then. We were seated on beautifully comfortable sofas and I do remember a constant supply of Pimms served by really attractive waitresses who really looked after you. Such a shame the corner houses are no longer there. Jillian.

    By Jillian Foley (04/04/2020)
  • In the early 1960’s I worked for the Prudential in North Street and our department went to Lyons over the road for our morning break. I used to have ‘milk and a dash’, which was a very milky coffee in a glass. With this I had an iced bun. No wonder I started to put on weight! They really were the good old days. Brighton has changed so much since then, and not for the best. We will have to see what it will be like when this COVID 19 Pandemic is over.
    Norma (Stone) Ingram.

    By Norma Ingram (14/10/2020)
  • I worked on the Trocadero project as a young Carpenter. I remember well the Chinese Restaurant on one of the floors, it was huge, supposedly the largest in Europe. Tables still had dirty plates on and the cooking pots and pans had just been left, it looked like everyone must of just up and left when the building was closed. I had 3 great years working at the Corner House and it was a fantastic place to work. My mate and myself explored every floor whenever we had the chance, it was such a lovely Building. I’ve been back several times over the years but unfortunately as it has been mentioned already the Building looks nothing like is former self, shame but I guess that’s progress. I did manage to salvage a few bits from the Building which I still have to this day.

    By Lee Barton (15/11/2020)
  • I wonder if anyone remembers my Great Aunt Mabel Ireland? I believe she was a manager at the Strand CornerHouse in the 1950s and spent some time in one of the Brighton shops in, I think, the 1930s.

    By Steve Curtis (21/02/2021)
  • How wonderful reading all the comments and memories. I’m 62 and have lovely memories of my great uncle “solly” who was a chef at Lyons Corner House (can’t think of his surname at the moment much to my annoyance!) He used to put on lovely teas for us at my grandmother’s flat in Campbell buildings just off the Westminster Bridge District. Think I was around 10ish then so I’m talking around the late 1960s time. Wonder if anyone knew him or remembers him? Such happy childhood memories of Solly who was My father’s, Ernest Seabrook, uncle.

    By Jill powell (18/02/2022)
  • Can someone tell me? Lyons Corner house in St James St Brighton, was it on a corner? and did the other corner face the sea front?

    By m . le blond (18/03/2022)
  • I think that the Lyons Corner House you mention was on the left side corner looking up St James’s Street from Old Steine. That is the North corner. From upstairs you could look down onto the trolley bus wires below.

    By Tim Sargeant (19/03/2022)
  • Indeed the Brighton Lyons Corner House was on the left corner as you look up St James’s Street.
    My parents used to take us to sit upstairs as the annual London to Brighton vintage cars passed by. Best view in town.

    By Nick Burdett (20/03/2022)
  • My mum and I used to browse round the shops in Western Road on Saturday afternoons, and afterwards meet my dad who had spent the afternoon browsing the tool shops in Gardener Street. We would then meet up and have egg and chips in the Lyons Teashop in North Street, with huge cups of tea, before catching the train back to Haywards Heath. This would have been late 50’s/60’s.

    By Liz Parker (11/06/2022)
  • Jeanette (see comments above) mentions that Mrs Shakespeare was an assistant manager in the 60s at The North St branch of Lyon’s. My aunt was Annie Shakespeare (née Washer) and she also worked at Lyon’s in London and in the Western Road branch in Brighton. I remember going to see her in the Western Rd tea house as a child in the early 60s.

    By Stella Hughes (07/01/2023)
  • I started work at the Strand Corner house in 1967 as a management trainee. I worked in all departments of both the Strand and Coventry street corner houses. Great firm to work for. My last position was manager of the Fisherman’s Wharf in Wimbledon my director was Peter Byford. Harold young dined there most Sunday evenings.

    By Peter Briere Edney (17/03/2023)
  • I used to go with my Mum in the late 1950s to Joe Lyons in Worthing on Saturdays. I remember queuing up, sliding the tray along the shelf, paying the cashier at the end and then going round looking for a table. I remember the wooden chairs scraping on the floor as you tried to squeeze into the narrow space in between the tables. I remember it was quite often a bit scruffy in there, with fairly poor lighting, but for some reason it was good fun!

    By Judith Wilson (28/05/2023)

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