Your Memories
John Harold
Mint Cracknel
I remember loving Mint Cracknel as a kid. I used to look forward to visiting
our local sweet shop for Alamo Bars, sweet peanuts and Mint Cracknel.
I can still remember the colour of the green filling, the strong minty
taste and the texture of the cracknel as I bit it. I'd give my right arm
to taste one again!
Judith Hardisty
Sugar peanuts
Small sugar peanuts just like sugered almonds but peanuts. Loved them on way to school.
Hilary Robinson
Ducks, New Potatoes and Green Peas
Walking up the road, clutching my (old)pennies and buying a quarter of
'Ducks, New Potatoes and Green Peas' from the sweet shop. Don't know how
long they were on sale but, apart from my family, I've never met anyone
else who remembers them!
Aimee Allard
Flying saucers
Hi, I recently went into Hope and Greenwood and I bought some flying
saucers. They were lovely, thank you!
Carolann Keith
Scottish sweetie shop
Living in ruralScotland, me and my brother were subject to the scottish
sweetie shop, sports mixtures, lucky tatties (nougat covered in cinnamon)
strange toffees with plastic small toys in them, lots of toffee stuff
with nuts or honeycomb in them and of course bon bons.
Deana Allcock
Bon Bons
I remember when I used to go to school, my friend used to knock for me
and we would then meet other friends and all go to the sweet shop and
buy a quarter of something, my favourite was shrimps and strawberry bon
bons, this was my second breakfast of the day, was lovely. I love your
shop in Covent Garden its like being a child again with no fillings!
Helen Blachford
Galaxy Counters
I love your shop in Covent Garden! I miss Galaxy Counters though - I
wish they would come back they remind of summer holidays reading Famous
Five and Secret Seven books with lashings and lashings of lemonade!
Sarah Barcessat
Jelly sweets
I remember my mum picking me up from school with jelly sweets which were
encased in a mould.
Amanda Brewer
Love love love your shop
I was a spoilt little girl with a lovely uncle
who took me to the Old Village Sweet Shop in Ruislip many a Saturday,
sherbet pips, flying saucers, rolla cola balls, lemon bon bons,cough candy,
REAL aniseed balls, teeth, mice, you name 'em I had 2oz of them!! My habit
continued at senior schools where I was a regular at May's sweet shop.
May's viscious husband policed the door whilst a hundred (I kid you not)
of us tried to squeeze in at once after school. My all time favourite
sweetie moment though was on a school trip, we were all lauging so hard
because Marina fell off her seat in the mini bus and began to choke on
her 'chineapple punk' as she mispronounced it, takes me back every time
I see them...
Theodore Theodorou
I Love Sweets
Well, my whole family can say it, I Love Sweets! Maybe a bit too much.
But don't worry I do lots of exercise like karate (I'm nearly a black
belt). I am 10 years old and I was born on the 23rd of May 1998. (It's
nearly my birthday). I live on 7 plough lane.
I love hope and greenwood it's my favourite shop! My favourite sweets
are the giant strawberries or the really big fizzy dip pack. I am an artist
(If I say so myself) and I draw loads of pictures of sweets. I wanted
to scan one of my favourite drawings to show you but my scanner wasn't
working.
I hope you find my letter interesting.
Theo
P.S sorry if I made any spelling mistakes (I think I did) :)
Karen Gregory
Liquorice laces
Sadly, I can't remember the lilac lady's name but she was wonderful.
I also remember liquorice laces (the very long ones!)... during my early
years at school, I would pass them up the sleeves of my school cardi and
out the top, then when in lessons I would sneak the odd nibble without
anyone noticing! Naughty but nice.
Karen Gregory
Cherry Lips
Cherry Lips! They remind me of the lovely elderly lady who owned the corner sweet shop. She always had immaculate, lilac coloured hair with matching nail polish and lippy. Sometimes it would be a pearly pink, but mostly she loved the lilac look!
Malcolm McLaren
Cola Cubes
Cola Cubes (the proper ones!), Astro Belts, lemon bonbons, fudge cubes,
I could go on...
Nikolas Allsorts
Liquorice
Nikolas Allsorts and the Case of the Bye Bye Birdy Wedding Ring.
I love Liquorice. Always have and always will, but it was one particularly
sunny summer's day that would rock my affection for my favourite black
root treat. I was six years old and at the zoo with my Mother, Father
and older brother (in reality i think it was just my older brother and
sustitute Gateways for the zoo but i think the first version is more romantic,
non?). My mother had just bought the two of us a Sherbet Fountain and
we were tucking in to the fizzy sugary goodness when the most enormous
bird you've ever seen (think buzzard or albatross) swooped over head,
gracing us with a substantial dropping in the process. The gift promptly
landed in my sherbet fountain and on my finger, forming a perfect ring
shape.
Ever since I've been happily married to my true love, liquorice (or the
albatross, whichever way you look at it) and we have lived happily ever
after. The End.
Chocobunny Bunny
Sherbet
My mum used to buy me and my sister a Mars bar each on Fridays which
we used to cut up into little cubes to make it last longer! We got 50p
a week pocket money which we used to spend on comics instead of sweets.
Sad but true!!! I do have one incident that happened to a school friend
of mine but it is pretty gross you might not want to use it!!! Julie stuffed
herself with sherbet one lunchtime and managed to give herself hiccups.
I told her the only way to cure them was to drink some water from the
other side of a glass (God knows where I heard that old tale from!!!)
anyhow she managed it, and promptly threw up because water and sherbet
don't mix!!!
Denise and I thought it was hilarious, Julie didn't but it did stop her
hiccups though!!!
Chris Odonnell
Gobstoppers
One of my earliest childhood memories is being held upside down by my
ankles over the bath by my mum as she tried to dislodge a gobstopper from
my throat. Needless to say I survived and it put me off gobstoppers for
about 10 minutes.
Dolly Mixture
Kali bag
When I was 10 years old we would stop at the sweet shop at the corner
of Gregory Fold on the way to school. Pocket money would be spent on bags
of rainbow coloured Kali, Shrimps, Fruit Salads and Astro Belts, and then
hidden in our desks until 1st break when we would play sweet swapsies....a
fruit salad got a very big dip in the Kali bag! Snotty kids were not allowed
to play!
Cassie Smith
Love hearts
My memory of "love hearts" is sitting with my best friend and we would read the messages on the sweets out to each other. For some reason this was the funniest thing in the world and we spent hours doing it. The best scenario ever was to be able to read out "tit for tat" that would bring on an unstoppable fit of giggle. I still eat "love hearts" and they bring back fond memories. I am still looking for a "tit for tat", unfortunately it seems to have been replaced these days with "text me"- sadly this is not as good for inducing giggle!
Katy Davis
Easter eggs
My mummy sneaking into my room and eating all my easter eggs. Sucking on Rubarb and custard in the back of the car on family days out to the beach.
C.B.
Pocket money
I was given 50p pocket money when we moved house to shut me up.
When I went to the sweet shop it was actually too much money and I couldn't find enough sweets to buy. (many cost 1/2p back then!)
Miriam K.
Rolos
My Father used to get paid weekly on a Friday. Every Friday night he would stop off at the sweet shop and buy a packet
of rolos for my mum, my sister and me. Every Friday and always Rolos. We used to wait at the door for him. I can't see Rolos now without thinking of my Dad.
Una Fricker
Space dust
I remember when fizz whizz was called space dust my brother and I had great fun pouring it down ant hills then adding water and watching
the ant fountain explosion that followed. Cruelty to Ants almost certainly but amazing fun for an 8 year old!!
Billy Davis
Crunchie Bar
My sweet memory revolves around one of the chocolates in your Retro Jamboree
Box - the "Crunchie" bar Or, rather, the Champagne flavoured Crunchie
bar.
Back in 1999, they bought out a limited edition Champagne flavour Crunchie.
It was still milk chocolate, but they had infused the honeycomb with a
Champagne flavouring. The wrapper was silver, and covered in shiny holographic
bubbles.
To celebrate the 1999/2000 New Year's Eve, we had a big party round my
Uncle's flat in Crystal Palace. He has a 3rd floor flat that had rather
nice views of the fireworks both in London and in Crystal Palace Park.
Before leaving for the party, I went to my local newsagents and bought
an entire box of these Crunchie bars to bring to the party with me. As
the clocks struck Midnight, we served the chocolate along with our Champagne.
So, my first memory of the new Millennium was standing on the balcony
of my Uncle's flat, overlooking the fireworks going off in London - Crunchie
Bar in one hand, glass of bubbly in the other. Happy days!
Rosey Apple
Mixed Toffees
When I was about 10 years old my mum used to give me 50p on a Saturday
morning to go to the newsagents and buy her half a pound of mixed toffees
for her Saturday night treat. On my way home I used to eat all the mint
ones; to this day I don't think my mum knows that mixed toffees include
a mint one!
Toby Ray, London
Sherbet
OH MY GOODNESS!!!
I nearly let out quite a lot of wee when I opened that package! Thank
you so much. I had forgotten quite how much I like sherbet, I have stuffed
myself with flying saucers, and Dib-dabs, and Oh my goodness, how much
do I love the liquorice in a sherbet fountain!?
It took me right back to my 4th Birthday party, when my Aunty bought
me a pale blue little plastic wheelbarrow and filled it full of sweets.
I probably did do a little wee in my jim-jams back then.
Thank you so much! They came at exactly the right time, as it looks that
I may be loosing my job as the company I work for are about to go bust.
I can stay home and eat sweets!
Thank you so much!!
Michael in the US, 06 Aug 2007
Jelly Babies
I had been trying to get some authentic 'jelly babies' ever since I
saw them on the TV series 'Dr Who' in 1976 on the public broad casting
network in Destin, Florida, USA.
Recently a friend told me he was going to visit his son in London and
I asked him to get me some. On his arrival home, he handed me a small
bag of jelly babies from Hope and Greenwood. To say the least, it was
worth the 30 year wait. The taste and texture was far superior to anything
I have gotten here in the United States. I have shared very few with my
family and hope to order some from H&G's new website when it is up
and running. I only have 3 left, so let's hope they hurry!
Mr Greenwood, His Own Little World
Pineapple Cubes
Pineapple Cubes are my favourite childhood sweet. I used to come out of school and go to the corner shop for a cup of Tizer, a quarter of Pineapple Cubes and a single cigarette. I used to bribe the girls for a flash of their knickers in exchange for a Pineapple Cube.
Richard T
Sherbet Pips
When I was 12 we used to go to the local sweet shop and I always bought
Sherbet Pips. I used to cram as many as I could into my mouth until I
looked like a squirrel. Then I would bounce on my mate's trampoline. This
was probably not a good thing to do.
Mrs Jill Davies, UK
Rations
I have discovered that a jar of "Rations" in the laundry room,
certainly helps to chase away those wash-day blues!
Ms Brenda Sketchley
Kahli
Oh what joy to read of your shop memories flood back especially about
raspberry crystals otherwise known as kahli. I'd have many flavours in
one bag for 3d 'rainbow kahli' more likely Gwen -our local corner sweet
shop owner- put all the last bits of the many flavours into one jar (a
kind of recycle) and how we kids loved getting our fingers sticky and
we'd see who got their finger the deepest colour by using it as a 'dipper'
instead of liquorice our tongues didn't fair too well either.
Sue Wheeler
Buttered Brazils
I have been scouring the area for buttered brazils . I am visiting my
sister in South Africa next week to celebrate her 60th birthday, and have
to try and get some to take over there. It used to be our Mum's favourite
when we were children. She had a quarter of them every Friday as her weekly
treat. Anyway its now my sister's favourite and I will buy some to take
with me. Someone who I work with mentioned your website, I visited it
and hey presto, you sell them. You have saved my life. Thank you very
much.