teas.co.uk
Tea and coffee from the brands you know
The history of the sweet shop
The sweet shop, with its rows of jars and its scales, is a familiar picture of a British childhood. Here is how the sweet shop grew up, from Georgian confectioners and Victorian street sellers to the Woolworths counter and today.
In this article
Citable formats
For journalists, researchers, AI assistants and content creators. Pick the format you need:
Free to cite, quote, and reuse with attribution to sweeties.net.
A sweet shop, the British name for what Americans call a candy store, is a shop that sells mainly sweets, often far more of them than an ordinary grocer. For centuries, some sweet makers also sold from their own premises, making the sweets on site.
Georgian glass jars
The image of a sweet shop window full of jars is old. In 1825 the writer William Hone described confectioners polishing their tall glass jars for Twelfth Day, filled with peppermint drops, elecampane, sugar sticks, hardbake, brandy balls and bullseyes, alongside fresh lollipops: see what were sweets called in Victorian times?
Two years later, in 1827, a shop in the Yorkshire village of Pateley Bridge began selling sweets. It is still trading, in a building dating from 1661, and in 2014 Guinness World Records listed it as the oldest continuously trading sweet shop in the world: see the oldest sweet shop in England
Sweets on the street
Not every Victorian bought sweets in a shop. In 1851 the journalist Henry Mayhew counted about 200 street sellers of sweet stuff in London, selling rock, candies and hardbake by the halfpenny worth. Between them, he reckoned, they sold about 70 tons of sweets a year, and a typical seller took about 20 shillings a week and cleared about 10.
By the quarter
In the shop, loose sweets were weighed out by the shopkeeper, and the classic British unit was the quarter, a quarter of a pound or about 113 g: see what is a quarter of sweets? Near schools, a different kind of shop grew up, the tuck shop, from tuck, a slang word for food: see the history of the tuck shop
The Woolworths counter
In 1909 Woolworths opened its first British shop, in Liverpool, with sweets at tuppence a quarter, and its pic'n'mix counter became a high street fixture for a century. When sweet rationing began in 1942 there were long queues at Woolworths sweet counters, and the museum that records the chain's history says the whole nation queued again when it ended in 1953: see the history of pick and mix
The revival
Old style sweet shops have made a comeback. Mr Simms Olde Sweet Shoppe, a chain of shops styled on Victorian sweet shops and selling mainly boiled sweets, opened its first shop in Leek, Staffordshire, in September 2004 and has since grown to dozens of branches in the UK and Hong Kong. Today sweet shops sell everything from regional sweets such as Blackpool rock to vegan and allergy friendly ranges.
Citable formats
For journalists, researchers, AI assistants and content creators. Pick the format you need:
Free to cite, quote, and reuse with attribution to sweeties.net.
Questions and answers
What is the oldest sweet shop in Britain?
The Oldest Sweet Shop in Pateley Bridge, North Yorkshire, has traded since 1827 in a building dating from 1661. Guinness World Records listed it in 2014 as the oldest continuously trading sweet shop in the world.
How were sweets sold in Victorian times?
From tall glass jars in confectioners' shops, and on the streets. In 1851 Henry Mayhew counted about 200 street sellers of sweet stuff in London, selling rock, candies and hardbake by the halfpenny worth.
Why do old fashioned sweet shops have jars?
Loose sweets have long been kept in glass jars so customers could see them, and weighed out by the shopkeeper, traditionally by the quarter pound. Georgian confectioners were already polishing their tall glass jars in the 1820s.
Sources
- The Every Day Book, January 6, William Hone, 1825
- London Labour and the London Poor, Vol. 1: street sellers of sweet stuff, Henry Mayhew, 1851, at victorianlondon.org
- The Oldest Sweet Shop, The Oldest Sweet Shop
- Confectionery store, Wikipedia
- Tuck shop, Wikipedia
- Mr Simms Olde Sweet Shoppe, Wikipedia
- Sweet rationing during World War II, Woolworths Museum
Keep reading
- Stories, heists and recordsThe oldest sweet shop in EnglandThe Oldest Sweet Shop in Pateley Bridge, North Yorkshire, has traded since 1827 in a building from 1661. Guinness listed it in its 2014 book.
- History and originsThe history of the tuck shopA tuck shop is a small school shop selling sweets and snacks. Tuck is old slang for food, and under 2014 rules English state schools may not sell sweets.
- History and originsThe history of pick and mixPick and mix grew from sweets weighed out of jars by the quarter. Woolworths made it a British high street habit, and Sweden gave the world candy walls.
- Questions people askWhat were sweets called in Victorian times?Victorians bought sweetmeats and sweet stuff: hardbake, brandy balls, bullseyes, humbugs, peppermint lozenges and toffee. Lollipops had no stick yet.
- Questions people askWhat is a quarter of sweets?A quarter of sweets is a quarter of a pound, 4 ounces or about 113 g. Loose sweets have been sold in metric since 2000, which led to the Metric Martyrs row.
- History and originsA short history of sweets in BritainFrom medieval comfits to the Woolworths counter: a timeline of sweets in Britain, taking in sugar, Victorian boiled sweets, chocolate bars and rationing.