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JOLYON restaurant

  • Thread starter Thread starter Zimbo
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Zimbo

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Has anybody got any info on the JOLYON in New Street. When did it open and when did it close down?
Who ate there?
 
I think you will find that JOLYON is JO LYONS and LYONS had loads of coffee shops. O0
 
HI ZIMBO, IF MY MEMORIE SERVE,S ME RIGHT, THE GREAT JO LYON STARTED THE BUSSINESS IN THE EARLY 3O,S ALONG WITH WILIAM GEORGE JELF IN AND AROUND THE OLD CITY OF B,HAM , AND THERE WAS COMPETITION BETWEEN THEM THEY HAD ONE IN THE BURLINTON ARCADE, NEW STREET, AND AFEW OTHER PLACE,S THERE RESTURANT,S USED TO HAVE WAITRES,S WEARING A BLACK AND WHITE CRINENLIN HAT,S SKIRTS, AND THE WAITRES,S USED TO WAIT ON THE CUSTOMER,S.IN THE END JOE LYON, FINISHED IS BUSSINESS IN NEW STREET AROUND 1956/7,WHERE UPON THE JELF,S CONTINUED TO CARRY ON SERVING THE CITY COUNCIL HOUSE, AND THE OLD GPO, TILL 1967, AND THE LAST OF JELF,S EMPIRE WAS DEMOLISHED 24/25/O6/O4,; ASTONIAN,;;
 
Found this little snippet. O0

At the same time Joe Lyons opened his first tea shop in Piccadilly in 1894, followed a chain of Lyons Corner Houses with the famous waitresses in their black dresses, white aprons and caps. They became known as Nippies because of the way they hurried about their duties. Some branches of Lyons Corner Houses survived until the 1980’s
 
The one I used to go to was in New St Opposite the Cinema with the very High Circle am I right :)
 
I think the cinema you refer to Alf was The Forum. I don't remember the Joe Lyons Tea Shops though - perhaps because I have never drunk a cup of tea in my life - horrid stuff.
 
Yes Alf...I remember Lyon's as being opposite the Odeon New Street. We used to go in there on Saturdays and it was always full and we had to queue. I, like Sylvia, don't drink tea so I didn't much like it when I had to have still orange instead of tea.....I never liked that either. They used to make the tea in huge teapots with a large fishnet like thingyme full of tea placed on the top of the pot and water was poured through. On Saturdays when it was busy the staff never had time to put a top on the huge teapot and just poured the tea into one cup after another and kept on adding water until it was really weak....Ugh. I preferred the Lyons further up New Street going toward the Town Hall...upstairs. They sold a lot of Lyons products there as well.
 
HI SYLVA, IF YOU DID,NT DRINK TEA , WHAT DID YOU DRINK, DID YOU DRINK COFFEE, I ONLY DRINK COFFEE , AND IN THE FIFTIES THE BEST PLACES FOR COFFEE, WAS THE OLD EL SOMBRERO, ON HORSE FAIR, LATE NIGHT EARLY MORNING ,INFACT I DON,T THINK HE EVER CLOSED,OR IF YOU EVER WENT TO THE ICE RINK AT SPRINGHILL,YOU GOOD GET A DECENT CUP ACROSS THE ROAD AT THE BAMBOO COFFEE BAR, OUR FAVOURITE PLACE WHICH WAS OPEN ALL NIGHT FOR GOOD COFFEE, WAS THE STAGE DOOR COFFEE BAR DOWN THE SIDE OF THE OLD JACIE PICTURE HOUSE, WHERE ALL THE MIDLANDS BANDS WOULD COME AND MEET UP, AND DISCUSS MUSIC AFTER THERE GIGS ,PEOPLE LIKE ,SPENCER DAVIS ,ERIC BURDEN, OSSIE OSBOURNE,BLACK SABBATH, THESE MADE IT, TO FAME, THERE ARE OTHER BANDS WHOM REGURARLY VISTEDTHERE SOME NEVER MADE THE FAME, BUT THEY PLAYED MOST PUBLIC HOUSES IN B,HAM, THAT WAS AN ALL NIGHTER, S COFFEE BAR THERE WAS ONE MORE PLACE DOWN THE BOTTEM OF CAPE HILL, WHICH WAS A COFFEE BAR AND RESTUARTANT ,WHICH WAS OPEN TILL 4 OCLOCK IN THE MORNING, WHERE YOU COULD GET A GOOD MEAL AND A SPANKING GOOD CUPPA COFFEE, AND YOU WOULD BET YOUR LAST HALF ACROWN YOU COULD SEE AND CHAT WITH OUR LOVELY MISS JULIE WALTER,S SHE WAS YOUNG AND BUBBLIE AND STILL HIS,TODAY, I MET HER THROUGH A FRIEND, IN THERE WITH MY DEAR OLD FRIEND , WHOM HAS SINCED DIED OF CANCER, HIS NAME WAS JOHNIE DUNKLEY, AND HE WAS A GREAT GUY AND VERY WELL KNOWN ,, BEST WISHES ASTONIAN,;;;
 
Hi Astonian, I have never drunk tea, and didn't drink coffee either until I went to work at Wolseley Engineering in Electric Avenue, Witton, in the mid 60s, and I was given a coffee made entirely with milk and pretty weak, it was my first day there and I managed to drink most of it, I gradually started to drink it on a regular basis, but am still rather fussy and prefer coffee/chichory.

I am afraid it was embarassing to always refuse tea and coffee and ask for mineral water, cordial etc., I never frequented the places you mention, as I got married young and was a mother by 1959, but the 60s were very exciting times to live through and I did have some good social times, good job I then had a taste for the stronger stuff. lol
 
HI SYLVIA, GOOD MORNINGTO YOU ON THIS LOVELY SATURDAY, THE SUN IS SHINING , AND LIFE IS GRAND,AND THEY SAY AS THEY SAY ,IT,S A GRAND LIFE , IF YOU DON,T WEAKEN, YEAH,,MIND YOU I THINK I AM WEAKING, HA/ ANY WAY ,THANKS FOR REPLYING , WHEN YOU SAID IT WAS EMBARASSING TO REFUSE TEA OR COFFEE, I CAN AGREE WITH YOU ON THAT SUBJECT, BECO,S MY WIFE TERESA, AS THE SAME PROBLEM , ALSO I HAVE TWO GROWN UP SON,S IN THERE LATE TWENTY,S WHOM HAVE NEVER NOR WILL ATTEMPT TOO DRINK TEA /COFFEE IN THERE LIFE THERE MOTHER HIS STILL THE SAME TODAY , I GET EMBARASSING WHEN I TELL THEM SHE WILL ONLY DRINK COKE,THE REAL COKE , AND NO OTHER POP,WE USED TO RUN A LOT OF PUBS AROUND BIRMINGHAM , AND SHE STILL WOULD ONLY DRINK COKE, AND NOTHINK STRONGER, EVEN AT CHRISMAS TIMES , SHE WILL NOT DRINK ANY OLD BRAND OF COKE, AND SHE CAN TELL YOU IF AND WHEN IT,S FLAT, SHE WILL TAKE BACK TO THE STORE AND TELL THEM AND ASKED TO EXCHANGE THE BOTTLE BEST WISHES , AND HAVE A NICE DAY , ASTONIAN ,;;;
 
Good afternoon Astonian, it is a grand day today isn't it. It is nice to hear that I am not alone with my fads, I was called the cuckoo in the nest when young, because all my family are big tea drinkers, in fact there was ALWAYS a pot of tea on the table and the kettle was always on the stove ready to make a fresh brew, I wouldn't eat my meal if the spout of the teapot was facing me, and I would never empty the teapot, I would have been sick.
 
TOP OF THE MORNING TO YOU SYLVIA,HOPE YOU HAD A NICE WEEKEND,THE WEATHER WAS BRILLENT DOWN HERE IN WORCESTERSHIRE,WELL AT LEAST I KNOW SHE,S NOT ALONE ,BECOS I WAS THINKING SHE WAS AN ODD BALL, AS I SAID IT ,S EMBARSING WHEN YOU GO OUT SOCIAIALISING,TO FUNCTIONS , AND PEOPLE ,S HOUSES, AND ASKED DO YOU WANT TEA /COFFEE, SHE DECLINES AND PEOPLE THINK AWARKWARDLY ,AND THEN THE OFFER A DROP OF SOMTHINK SPECIAL, AND TELL THEM SHE ONLY DRINKS THE REAL THING COKE, NOR WILLSHE DRINK ANY OTHER KIND OF POP ,MYSELF I AM ATEA ADDICT,I CAN AND WILL DRINK AS MANY FULL TEA POTS YOU CAN FILL AND LINE UP, MY TEA POT IS NEVER EMPTY, HAVE A NICE DAY AND KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK, BY THE WAY HIS FLOWER GIRL ON THE FORUM , I HAVEN,T SEEN HER ON SITE FOR AGES, WELL SYLVER LADY, PLEASE EXCUSE ME NOW FOR A LITTLE MOW, AS MY TEA POT AS JUST RAN OUT GOT PUT THE KETTLE ONTHE BACK BURNER, SPEAK TO YOU LATER CHUCK, ASTONIAN,;;;;
 
Sorry I haven't replied before Astonian, just a little suggestion why not get your wife to take her own coke with her, then if your hosts haven't got what she likes, she could ask if they would mind her drinking her own, it would probably make them feel better too.
 
Just come across this discussion. I was surprised to see there were only two Joe Lyons restaurants listed in the 1950 Kellys', one at 74 Bull Street and the other at 61 New Street opposite the flicks. But I well remember the one in Victoria Square facing the Council House, which think may in 1950 must bhave been the National Milk Bar at No 2 Victoria Square. This one is certainly in the 1956 directory.
Alf's link gives us a fantastic overall view of Lyons' organisation, which was very successful in its time. Immaculately kept blue vans used to deliver to the branches, with the motto "All cooked at Cadby Hall". [This was a big bakery next to Olympia Station in London].
Although I'm not a great tea-drinker myself either, I think it is unkind to criticise Lyon's tea. It was served very intelligently. They had a kind of carrousell which took up to six or eight pots, which could be used in rotation. An empty pot was filled first with boiling water, which was then tipped into the tray beneath, and the standard measure of tea leaves was put in. Then the boiling water, and it was then turned on the roundabout. When a customer ordered a cup of tea, it would be taken from the pot at the front of the queue. It was not difficult for the staff to gauge when to fill the next empty pot, to ensure that the tea was properly brewed bhut still fresh, not stewed.
Also I remember their Welsh Rarebits and their scones.
When our Barbara was first pregnant in 1960-61 she took a fancy to Lyons' Coffee Dash, which I always thought tasted sickly, because they used an early form of what is now called homogenised milk. At the time she was working at the Piccadilly Hotel in London, starting at 7.45 am, and we used to take the train to Victoria, walk past Buck House and through the Park to the Joe's in an alleyway opposite the hotel. After her CD I'd see her into work and would walk across Soho and Bloomsbury to Kings Cross, where I started work at 8.30. Plenty of nice memories, so I wouldn't knock Joe's.
Peter
 
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