Tobacconist shops

We used to have one when I was younger back room was a smoking room and front of shop was a sweet shop we would go in every week for our weekly sweets it was owned by a lovely guy Tony not that I ever saw the back room his son ran it last time I saw it few years ago.

My late husband used to smoke a pipe and I remember his choice of tobacco was Coffee flavour. I loved the smell of it.

It smelt wonderful until he actually lit up and then it became Just smelly old tobacco.

I remember tobacconist shops very well.

My father was a pipe smoker, Gold Block and St Bruno. Still have old (empty) tins of Gold Block in the garage - very useful for keeping seeds dry and safe before sowing.

Oh yes, there was a traditional tobacconist around the corner to us for many years with an array of pipes and tobacco. I remember popping in there one Christmas to buy the little boxes of chocolate puppies & kittens for stocking fillers. Happy Days

Not many tobacconists shops now I think! Probably replaced by fashionable chain cafes, fast food outlets, vape shops or American style ‘candy’ shops! All pretty bad for your health too.

annodomini

I can remember going into a tobacconist's shop when I was a teenager, to buy some cigar's as a Christmas present for my dad who never quite gave up smoking though it was, latterly, a pipe. Tabacs are useful on the Continent for many things apart from tobacco products. In Spain they helpfully sell stamps.

Not only in Spain. I believe Britain was alone in only allowing stamps to be sold at the post office.

In Denmark you could And still can, buy them there, anywhere where postcards or stationary was sold, in the tobacconists and at the newsagent's.

I think the same applies in Germany and Holland, France and Belgium.

My husband likes a special cigar and has found them in tobacconist shops in Covent Garden and Brighton. I’m happy about that as good excuse for a train trip to places I like.

I’m pretty sure there was one just outside/ in the entrance to Ealing Common station.

nanna8

We still have them but now they advertise cigarettes and ‘ vapes’. Disgusting stuff designed to attract kids at school with disgusting flavours. They are not meant to sell to under 18 s but all the kids that want them get them easily apparently.

Agreed. These vape thingies should be banned, they not only are a very addictive and dangerous product but are also marketed at children and teens, which is absolutely disgusting and horrendously dangerous.

Hi there
Slightly off topic in reply …I ran an old fashioned Sweetshop at Holborn Bars …Holborn …It was the building that used to be on Old Holborn Tobacco …There was a Tobacconist a few doors down 🙂

There still are Tabacs in Eastern Europe and other Less affluent areas of the world.

NanKate

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.

That was a joke. Cigars were never rolled on thighs. They were and are rolled on the bench (unless they are machine-made). Probably it was a marketing rumour. French canal tiles were made, I gather, by slapping the clay on the thigh to get the shape.

That was to franbern

All sorts of tobacco sold, AND Snuff!!

As you’ll see in my entry just above yours, I too had to weigh out snuff as well as tobacco when I was in my teens. Wasn’t easy was it and I was always a bit nervous of the men I served.

When I was a child we knew a lady who had a sort of cigarette vending machine in her hall - I don't know if it gave singles or whole packets of cigarettes. Neighbours would buy from her.Presumably she rented this machine from whoever supplied the fags and took some sort of commission from the sales

nanna8

We still have them but now they advertise cigarettes and ‘ vapes’. Disgusting stuff designed to attract kids at school with disgusting flavours. They are not meant to sell to under 18 s but all the kids that want them get them easily apparently.

I'm not in any way condoning vaping, but it's not more disgusting than smoking cigarettes or any form of tobacco. And kids have always been able to get their hands on cigarettes too. I'm sure loads of you smokers on here remember being able to buy single cigarettes in the past.

When I was young we had a tobacconist shop in my street. The owners decided to change it to a hardware store and not sell cigarettes. Many people got very upset about this so he installed a large cigarette machine that talked in front of the shop.
I loved being sent by my parents with a few shillings (can’t remember how much they cost) to buy a packet and listen to the machine talk to me.
This was in the 60s, I different time.

We still have them but now they advertise cigarettes and ‘ vapes’. Disgusting stuff designed to attract kids at school with disgusting flavours. They are not meant to sell to under 18 s but all the kids that want them get them easily apparently.

I absolutely adore the smell of a cigar being smoked, it evokes such fond memories of my Grandfather and Father.

There is a Tabac on the corner next to my family home in Spain, so many fond memories of buying stamps to put on letters to grandparents and friends in U.K. along with the smell.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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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.

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 !