A century before Gail's moved into London's high streets there was a string of iconic cafes that became the capital's first mass catering restaurant chain.
A humble Victorian teashop in Piccadilly was the start of what became a fixture of the capital until the late 1970s.
Fifteen years after their first cafe at 213 Piccadilly, the J Lyons company opened Lyon's Corner House in 1909.
Located at the corner of Coventry Street and Piccadilly, in its heyday the restaurant served 5,000 covers, boasted 400 staff and at one point opened 24 hours a day.
There were soon flagship cafes in Marble Arch, Tottenham Court Road, Oxford Street and The Strand operating across multiple floors with a ground hall food hall, hairdressing salons, and telephone booths.
The family also owned a string of London hotels including The Strand, The Cumberland and the Regent Palace Hotel, which when built in 1915 was the largest in Europe, with 1,280 rooms.
The 250 white and gold fronted J Lyons' Corner Houses that popped up on London's high streets were famous for their waitresses, who caught the public imagination with their starched caps with a red L in the centre, black alpaca dress with a double row of pearl buttons, white cuffs and square, drop-waisted aprons.
In 1924 the directors of J. Lyons and Co decided to update their image and held a staff competition to choose a nickname for the newly styled teashop waitresses.
The former name of ‘Gladys’ was now old fashioned and the name ‘Nippy’ was chosen because they were nippy on their feet.
Food and drink prices were the same in each teashop.
The story of the family who founded this empire is told in a new exhibition at JW3 in Finchley Road.
J. Lyons and Co began in 1885 with four British Jewish entrepreneurs Isidore and Montague Glickstein, their brother-in-law Joseph Lyons, and son-in-law Barnett Salmon.
It traded under that name for the next 100 years, becoming the largest food company in Europe who introduced both fast food and frozen food to Britain.
In later years they ran laundries, tea estates, meat pie companies, ice-cream brands, tea and coffee companies, jam, confectionary and soft drink factories.
During the war they made bombs and packed millions of rations for troops fighting in Asia and in 1947 they baked the cake for the wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip.
In 1954 they opened Britain's first burger restaurant the Wimpy Bar in Coventry Street which grew into another chain - and later owned brands such as Dunkin Doughnuts and Baskin-Robbins ice-cream.
The 1970s brought an oil crisis and an over-extended business that was forced into closures and sell offs.
The Jewish Museum London which closed in Albert Street, Camden Town in 2023 when they sold off their headquarters to offset losses from the pandemic and falling visitor numbers is staging the exhibition at JW3.
The museum of British Jewish life is entering a new phase in its long-term revival as it works towards creating a permanent museum by 2030.
Following a period of financial and organisational challenges it says the exhibition is a "reset and a new beginning" to celebrate Jewish culture, art, learning, public engagement and its contribution to Britain.
Legacy: The Story of the Jewish Family who Founded J. Lyons and Fed Britain is inspired by the book Legacy: The Remarkable Story of J. Lyons and the Family Behind It by Thomas Harding.
The exhibition will also address challenges of antisemitism faced by the German-Jewish family who fled persecution to come to Britain in the nineteenth century, and make their initial fortune as tobacconists.
The second room will display Tree of Life: Stories from the Jewish Museum London's Collection. Both rooms are open at JW3 from June 18 until October 18.
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