Tobacconist shops

Up until I left the town in 2023 there was a tobacconist shop in Bexhill on Sea. The aroma was wonderful - it must have been from pipe tobacco. I also recall a specialist snuff shop in Haymarket called Frieberg and Treyer (sp?) where I used to buy small sample tins for my father.

Yes, why did tobacconists sell walking sticks and umbrellas? Mystifying!

It’s an old thread, tho a nice one for a trip down Memory Lane.
My DP only smokes cigars, I don’t smoke but I like the scent of them.
I do remember tobacconists, in every town and city and still a few around.As other posters say, the aroma in those shops was fantastic.

welbeck

Unigran4

I can remember being sent to the shop by my Dad for "An ounce of St Julien and a Rizla red"! No age limit then, I must have been 8 or 9 and ran this errand until I left home at 21.

well, unless you are very old, there certainly was an age limit, at least since the children and young persons act 1933, section 7, makes it an offence to sell tobacco to any person under 16; since raised to 18.

In the 60s and 70s I used to go and get my grandfather's Woodbines from the nearby shop from the age of 8, as did my brothers.

It was a local shop, and they knew everybody. Whether they would have sold cigarettes to unknown children I don't know.

My dad used to send us to pick up his pipe tobacco from the tobacconist beside the railway station.There were shops that were newsagent ts and tobacconists in the town too,but only that shop sold the brands he liked Balkan Sobrani was one and the other had black in the name but I can’t remember it.No doubt I ,ll remember at 3am ,

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Unigran4

I can remember being sent to the shop by my Dad for "An ounce of St Julien and a Rizla red"! No age limit then, I must have been 8 or 9 and ran this errand until I left home at 21.

well, unless you are very old, there certainly was an age limit, at least since the children and young persons act 1933, section 7, makes it an offence to sell tobacco to any person under 16; since raised to 18.

I used to pop into one near my nan's when I stayed with her for a packet of 10 woodbine. When she was skint they'd sell them singly, never asked fot tick, to proud for that..She did die of lung cancer though.

Koalama

Yes I remember these shops and the smells, in a bid to cut down my dad used to smoke cigars, then he had a pipe, I loved the smell of these, but as a non smoker I hate cigarettes and there smell

Both my parents, and my brother smoked and I always hated the smell! Though strangely, I loved the smell of fresh tobacco. My dad would roll his own cigarettes and I couldn't get enough of the smell. It was just the smoking of them I hated! I've never been able to have a partner who smoked either. My dad would treat himself to cigars at Christmas, which I loved the smell of, and my uncle smoked a pipe, which I also loved the smell of (even now, half a century later, I can be transported back to the Welsh valleys if I smell a particular pipe tobacco). But if I even get the slightest hint of a cigarette being smoked, I can't cope with it 🤢 I've had people tell me I can't hate cigarettes, and I'm just being awkward, if I like the smell of tobacco, cigars and pipes.... 🤦‍♂️

My mother smoked untipped Salisbury Abdullah. I think they were more expensive, so she smoked half at a time. I was sent to buy them from quite an early age. Her cigarettes smelled lovely, I haven't come across them for years.

Yes I do. I don't smoke, but my Dad did - There was one in Cheltenham Town center that had a big model of an Indian, complete with headress outside. It terrified me as a child, and I never understood the link then.

There was another really good one on acorner in Exeter City center, which I visited for cigars for my FinL. Sadly it closed a few years ago and is now yet another coffee shop :/

My father smoked ''rollies'' made of Old Holborn tobacco and Rizla cigarette paper.
Cigarettes were sold everywhere when I was young. Our local corner shop sold them, my mother would often send us for her Senior Service cigarettes.The shopkeeper would always put them in a paper bag or newspaper and tell us to go straight home with them and don't tell anyone he had sold us cigarettes.
I remember my grandfather loved to smoke cigars on special occasions. Every Christmas someone would buy him a box of them, he would make one last all Christmas Day.Even now after all those years ago the smell of cigar smoke will take me back to happy childhood Christmases at my grandparent's house.

When I was very small, my grandparents had a newsagent’s shop which sold tobacco and confectionery as well. They later went on to run a sub post office. I have never forgotten the distinctive aroma of pipe tobacco mixed with confectionery. I have never liked smoking but this smell was amazing and if I ever smell it now (increasingly rarely), it takes me straight back to when I was five years old again.

There was a shop in the high street where I previously lived, that was dedicated to just cigars, it did have a nice aroma when walking past. Not being a cigar smoker, or even a smoker, I wondered whether, a bit like the smell of ground coffee beans, the aroma is better than the taste!

Blondiescot

I just don't understand how anyone who isn't a smoker could actually marry a smoker!

I was surprised myself but I was crazy about him the first time I met him and I am still crazy about him now nearly 56 years on. He has stood by me through terrible illness and enabled me to have the children and the career I wanted by sharing responsibility for child care and for managing the housework. We've had major disagreements and challenges but we work together to sort them out. I am proud of him that he was able to give up smoking by the time he was 30 too

The town where I lived when young had a lovely tobacconist shop. I did like the smell and the shop always seemed so well organised with beautiful cabinets and displays. My DF smoked a pipe.

I can remember being sent to the shop by my Dad for "An ounce of St Julien and a Rizla red"! No age limit then, I must have been 8 or 9 and ran this errand until I left home at 21.

Yes I remember these shops and the smells, in a bid to cut down my dad used to smoke cigars, then he had a pipe, I loved the smell of these, but as a non smoker I hate cigarettes and there smell

By places I meant the cigar shops themselves.

Here in the States we still have Cigar Shops, where people can buy cigars, pipe tobacco, etc. Most places have indoor or outdoor cigar smoking.

We had one in Exeter until recently exactly like ParlorGames is explaining. Lovely little shop. The only place you could buy snuff, for one of my friends.

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.

I don’t think it was class or financial thing. I grew up in Coventry, certainly not in a "posh" area, and I remember lots of tobacconists about the place.

Definitely not only in affluent areas. I grew up in a very working class area of a city. It had it’s own shopping street and included a tobacconist, and a number of other small independent shops.

Yes I do remember tobacconists, I think in certain areas there are still a few around, they were like stepping back in time, same as sweet shops (the old fashioned kind).

eddiecat78

Blondiescot

I just don't understand how anyone who isn't a smoker could actually marry a smoker!

I have to say that as a 14 year old there was nothing more thrilling than snogging a boy who had been smoking! (And I've never been a smoker myself and would probably throw up if I kissed one now)

Oh dear god no! I actually want to be sick at the very thought of it. No matter how attractive a person was, the minute I knew they were a smoker, that would be it. I'm so anti-smoking that it's almost a phobia - and unfortunately I grew up with two parents who smoked. I absolutely detested it.

Blondiescot

I just don't understand how anyone who isn't a smoker could actually marry a smoker!

I have to say that as a 14 year old there was nothing more thrilling than snogging a boy who had been smoking! (And I've never been a smoker myself and would probably throw up if I kissed one now)