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Department stores in 1940s
and 50s Britain
The Edgware department store, Stanley J Lee. Photograph courtesy of Tony Woods.
Flying fox paying system. The sales assistant unscrewed a canister and put the money and the bill in it. He then screwed it up and pulled a release mechanism, upon which the canister flew along a cable to the cashier. The change and receipt came back the same way. Screen shot from an old film.
The only department store in Edgware was Stanley J Lee which was owned by the Lee family and, as far as I know, had no branches anywhere but Edgware. The people of Edgware seemed rather proud that their town boasted a department store. So it could not have been common.
The department store, Lees as it was called, was on two sites in Station Road: one sold haberdashery, fabrics, underwear, etc, which is the one in the photograph and the other, which is lower down the hill sold clothes.
There is another photograph of the upper shop on an Edgware page.
The flying fox
What I remember particularly was how the customers paid. The sales assistant sent each bill and the money in a special container along a cable to a central till. Then the cashier sent back the change the same way. I understand that the device was called a flying fox. I also understand that it was widely used in various types of shops including some Sainsburys.
