coffee beans, coffee supplies

Bob you've really awoken my memory banks now . They weren't known as coffee houses but called Lyons Corner houses, simply because they were all located in corner locations. I remember well my Dad used to take me to a small news theatre, as they were then called, right next door to the one on the corner of Tottenham Court Rd. The theatre used to show the Pathe news in flickering movie form, followed by several Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse type cartoons .It was a regular Sunday treat for me.I remember well on one occasion, I was sitting there having a delicious cream cake, for which they were famed, when Dad , who had been chatting to many friends in there, suddenly took me home, saying something bad was happening . I subsequently found out he had seen on the movie screen an announcement of impending war with Germany .Can't remember precisely the date but it must have been in 1939. Did you know in those days they were also five floors of restaurants above the tea shop, serving food in the grand manner, accompanied by musicians serenading the diners.With the waitresses in smart little back and white uniforms ? Real style for those times .
A further thing you will be interested in as a computer buff . After the war, early fifties, Lyons became the first British company to introduce computer accounting with it's LEO (Lyons Electronic Office) system .Those really were the days.Good and Bad .