Today the Lyons‘ food brand is relegated to a few cakes sold by Premier Foods, but the name has a long history in the UK starting out as a restaurant chain and a cake manufacturers in the late 1800s. The cafes finally closed in the 1970s and as far as I know none have been preserved.
They are less well known for confectionary but this lovely litho printed tin shows they were keen to try and move into that market as well despite a lot of competition. They tried a variety of toffee variations, and mostly the tins were quite ordinary outside, but as here would often have very attractive illustrations on the inside of the lid. There is little information to help us date it, but the fashions would seem to be from the 1920s. The scene shows children having fun on the beach with an enormous sandcastle which by rights ought to have required planning permission. A seaside donkey and a pier in the distance help add atmosphere.
The outer design is very different and more old fashioned, and depicts various fruits which rather suggests the sweets were fruit chews rather than traditional toffee.. Like most of these old tins this one has had a hard life but still makes a nice display piece. They were made at the Lyons factory in Hammersmith but despite the history of the site it too has been destroyed.
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