The First Food Empire. A history of J Lyons & Co

Notes:

A detailed and informative narrative history of the business dealing with it in three periods - origins, heyday and decline. Covers all its major functions with sections on: 1] 1887-1914: 'Tobacco beginnings' / 'Exhibition catering and showmen' / 'Lyons of Cadby Hall' / 'The restaurant revolution' / 'Cadby's Hall steam bakery' / 'Tea - the nation's drink' / 'Hotel building'; 1918-45: 2] 'Last of the exhibition catering' / 'The Corner Houses' / 'Teashops - mixed fortunes' / 'The Garden factory' / 'Evolution of ice cream' / 'Competition in baking' / 'Lujeri Tea Estate' / 'Meat pies' / 'The bomb makers of Elstow'; 3] 1946-78: 'Catering in crisis'; 'Hotel chains'; 'Tea bags and instant coffee'/ 'Lyons Maid' /'Let them eat cake' / 'Soft drinks' / 'Birth of frozen food' / 'Decline of food manufacture'; 4] 'The support services': 'From horse drawn vans to motor manufacture' / 'The food laboratory' / 'Biggest laundry in Europe'; 'Office technology and computer manufacture' / 'Welfare and employment'; 5] 'Fall of the Lyons empire'. Extensive appendices cover many areas, eg schedule of teashops; financial analysis of bLondon hotels, 1914-19; War memorial inscriptions; Financial analysis capital, profits, dividends, 1895-78; list of directors; analysis of hotels operated; family trees of Glukstein and Salmon families