Tobacconist shops

I remember tobacconist shops. I don’t think they were niche or class-related, most towns seemed to have at least one. My dad smoked a pipe and I too loved the smell of his ‘baccie’. Was there one called Virginia tobacco?

My bro and I used to buy him pipe cleaners or multicoloured spills for Christmas. Imagine that now! Dad used to set things alight with his pipe, once his jacket when he put a still-lit pipe in his pocket and another time he emptied embers into a waste paper basket. When mum went back into the room all that was left was the rim! 😳

I hated that my parents and my grandad smoked though, and of we four children, only one ever took up the habit, and they eventually stopped.

I remember tobacconists being around in the mid 1970s, I had a boyfriend who smoked black Sobranies, which were very hip in the day, so I went in with him. The choice of pipes and tobacco was quite staggering in those days, displays of 100 or more different connoisseur pipes weren’t unusual.

There's a small shop in our town that specialises in cigars.

There used to be a small tobacconist near to where DD lived. I remember going in there to buy DH a new bowl for his Falcon pipe - they had metal stems and interchangeable bowls. He smoked Erinmore Flake which had a lovely honeyed aroma. He stopped smoking altogether in the mid eighties. I don’t think there are any dedicated tobacconists in this city now.

oh well, i'm the outlier then.

Definitely not upmarket. I was dragged up in the back streets 9f Birmingham and there was one near us. I was fascinated by it. This one too had pretty boxes of chocolates and large bars of Cadbury's Bournville chocolate in the window as well as the pipes and paraphernalia.

I have a childhood memory of my Uncle having a lot of pipes in racks, and a tin glazed earthenware jar in the shape of a head that he kept his tobacco in. I used to wonder when he ever got to smoke all those different pipes, but now I wonder if some of them were my grandfather’s and he kept them for sentimental reasons. I never saw a picture of my grandfather until recently and saw that he was a pipe smoker.

They used to go along with newsagents a lot of the time. I worked in one for a short while as a Saturday job. I loved the smell in there.

Georgesgran

There was Donkin’s in Durham Market Place - about where WHSmith is now. I think it was Mrs Donkin who ran it and her daughter, younger than me, went to my school.

I remember Donkins I never smoked as a student but lots did the smell was lovely, aromatic pipe tobacco .
There was also one in Edinburgh I think called Loves. DH used to ask me to get him Cohibas? while he was in lectures and then fill the flat we stayed in after a meal out with the smell.

There were three tobacconists in the Main Street of the small town where I lived as a child, plus many small ‘corner’ shops which sold a wide range of cigarettes and tobacco. You only have to look at photographs taken in the late fifties and before, to see that smoking was quite acceptable for all classes.

My grandmother, who had smoked but gave it up when she realised that she didn’t really like it, always blamed films, where the hero and heroine down to the villain, were always seen with a cigarette.

As a child it always fascinated me to see how some men could cup a cigarette in their hands without getting burnt! I did love the smell of a pipe, my father smoked Gallaghers Rich Dark Honeydew, and cigar smoke always reminded me of Christmas.

I remember tobacconists shops, not that long ago either. The one I remember in town had several jars of boiled sweets in the window as well. My great uncle smoked a pipe, I loved the smell.

We had a tobacconist just down the road from the art school
Did a fabulous trade in Gauloise, Balkan Sobranies and Passing Clouds. Pretentious moi?

There is still a traditional tobacconist shop in a town not far from me. Even though I quit smoking nearly 20 years ago I still love the whiff that comes out of it when the door is open.

I used to love the Sobranie cocktail cigarettes. They came in pretty colours and my Mum used to buy them if she and my Dad were going to a ‘posh’ do.

All the men in my family smoked pipes. Dad used Erinmore ready rubbed. He asked for a tin each birthday and Christmas so that he could use his own money to buy worms for fishing! We still have tins full of nails, screws etc.
The tobacconists in Hove is still going.

They used to keep Bull's eyes on the counter for us children when we went in and would happily sell us tobacco even though we were about 7 when we were allowed to go by ourselves!.

My Dad’s aunt smoked a white clay pipe. I never knew her but there is a small black and white photo in a box somewhere of her puffing on her pipe .

There was a tobacconist in Aberystwyth, I remember there was a wooden ‘red indian’ with a headdress outside. The smell was lovely. My father had several pipes and used to put them in his pocket when he needed to use his hands to work. He was walking around a field once checking the sheep when someone started waving at him. Turned out his coat was one fire!

I remember watching a tv programme in the 1960s about how cigars were made and it showed some rather voluptuous women rolling them on their thighs 😳. I know I was horrified at the time, but now I think it was funny.

I tried a Woodbine cigarette only once, I can remember wanting to be sick, that taught me.

My dad used to go to the old St John’s market at Christmas for game meat in season for a treat. He also stopped at the tobacconist shop in Casey street to get his stock of Golden Virginian tobacco. My uncle Rex always smoked a pipe I admit I liked the smell of it.

My dad owned a tobacconist shop in the 60s and I would occasionally help out on a Saturday. I used to have to weigh out tobacco and even snuff !

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I loved the "speciality" tobacconists and found them to be a source of "special"gifts for years.

Occasionally I'd buy myself some Sobrane Cocktails or Black Russian or (more often) Gauloise Disque Bleu.

They also sold beautiful pens such as Watermans (and more expensive ones too) - as others have said the smell in the shop was unique - woody/leathery and of beeswax type polish! The ones I used (in the nearby city) seemed very sophisticated!

Happy days.

In East London (Hackney) in the mid 1950's, there was a small newsagent and tobaccanist opposite to the Council Flats in which I lived. All sorts of tobacco sold, AND Snuff!!

They asked me to help them out on Sunday mornings, as so many people came in to pay their newspaper bills, and when the local Catholic Church, turned out chldren used to come in the buy pocket money sweets.
I also used to have to serve people with snuff, which I had to weigh out on tiny scales. I was 14 years old, taking my GCE's and they (generously) paid me ten shillings for a couple of hours work each Sunday. When I finished (they closed at 1 pm), I would return home, (across a side road), for Mum's lovely raost dinner.

I remember the tobacconists, we had several in our town. When I was working on a geriatric ward I often used to pop into one of the shops to buy clay pipes for a patient. The pipe was white when I bought it.
The tobacconists I remember well was in the forecourt of the railway station and in the 50s you had the added smell of the steam trains.

We had a Bewleys in our town but it closed down some time ago. It Italy the tobacconist shops have a large T hanging outside, saying Tobacco and Salt. I don’t know whether they still sell salt but it’s the place to go for postage stamps and for your bus ticket.

welbeck

no i don't remember any of those growing up.
sounds quite a niche market, not for the masses.
i guess they were in more affluent areas perhaps.
the only one like that which i saw when i was working was on high holborn, near chancery lane, opposite grays inn rd.
i can imagine it's the sort of place the well-heeled men from the legal and insurance world might use.
in my childhood world tobacco products, which were mostly cigarettes, were sold in newsagents.

Actually no, they were not only for affluent areas. My local town, heavy fishing industry in the day, much manual work, still is. Tobacconist shop down a side street, smell of different tobaccos, smoked in those days, drew you in, Havana cigars in glass cases, outside a native American figurine, full height, smoking a peace pipe. Shock horror nowadays, but everyone knew where the shop was and the figurine was beloved by many. Since closed of course.