CONFECTIONERY

 

See Also: CAKES & PASTRIES; ECONOMICS The Mars Bar Inflation Index; FOOD BRANDS; ICE CREAM; NOT CHOCOLATE; SUGAR; MENU

 

Bendicks

In 1930 Oscar Benson and Colonel Bertie Dickson acquired a small confectionery business that was on Kensington Church Street. Lucia Benson, Mr Benson's sister-in-law, invented a dark cholate confection that contained a strong-tasting peppermint fondant. This was named the Bendicks Bittermint. In the mid-1930s the business acquired a flagship shop in Mayfair and changed its own name to Bendicks (Mayfair) Ltd.. In 1962 the business was granted a royal warrant by the queen.

Location: 184 Kensington Church Street, W8 7LU (blue, pink)

Website: www.bendicks.co.uk

 

Charbonnel et Walker

The Charbonnel et Walker confectionery business was founded in 1875. There was a rumour that the Prince of Wales (King Edward VII) was responsible for establishing mme. Charbonnel in the business. Supposedly, she had been one of his mistresses.

Location: 1 The Royal Arcade, 28 Old Bond Street, W1S 4BT (red, orange)

Website: www.charbonnel.co.uk

 

Chewing Gum

See Also: STREET FURNITURE Paving, The Chewing Gum That Isn t

Ben Wilson

Ben Wilson is a highly autonomous artist. He does art on chewing gum. He also erects wooden sculptures in Hadley Wood, Barnet.

Website: www.benwilsonchewinggumman.com

 

Chocolate

In 1655 the English conquered Jamaica. The Spanish had already established cacao plantations on the island. Two years later it was being sold in a house in Queen's Head Alley in Bishopsgate.

Location: Union Court, Bishopsgate, EC2N 1DY (blue, red)

See Also: BISCUITS Tax

Hampton Court Palace

As part of his work on Hampton Court Palace for King William III and Queen Mary II, Sir Christopher Wren designed a kitchen that was dedicated to chocolate.

Location: Hampton Court Way, East Molesey, KT8 9AU

Milk Chocolate

In his twenties Hans Sloane established himself as a physician in London. In 1687 he accompanied the 2nd Duke of Albemarle in a medical capacity on an expedition to Jamaica. The peer died soon after their arrival. Sloane chose to remain on the island for over year. During this time, he subjected its flora to intense scrutiny. Cocoa s properties as a mild stimulant were already known in Europe. However, the ground up beans had a bitter a taste that was regarded as being unpleasant. The doctor noticed that mothers in Jamaica made them palatable to their children by mixing them with milk, which ameliorated the sharpness. He devised a recipe for hot drinking chocolate.

Sloane returned to London and became one of the most successful physicians of the early 18thC. His fee-earned, annual income matched what the great landowners received from their rent-rolls. He purchased the Manor of Chelsea. There, he amassed a collection of curios. This was to prove to be the nucleus around which the British Museum's collection was to be developed.

Location: 4 Bloomsbury Place, WC1A 2QA. (This was Sloane's home from 1695 to 1742.) (red, blue)

See Also: THE BRITISH MUSEUM; ESTATES The Cadogan Estate; ICE CREAM Flakes

 

Ferrero

Location: 889 Greenford Road, Greenford, UB6 0HE

Website: www.ferrero.co.uk

Biters

Britons tend to bite into individual chocolates rather than to place them into their mouths whole. Ferrero of Italy developed Mon Ch ri, a chocolate piece that contained a cherry and kirsch. The product did not succeed in the United Kingdom because the British bit into it which caused the contents to surge out.

 

Green & Black's

In 1968 the brothers Craig and Gregory Sams opened Seed Restaurant, a macrobiotic organic restaurant, in Paddington. Two years later Harmony Foods was set up to supply macrobiotic food.1

Craig Sams founded the Whole Earth Foods organic wholefoods business. In 1991 he and his wife Josephine Fairley launched the Green & Black's organic chocolate business.

Website: www.greenandblacks.co.uk

1. In 1994, the Sams's parents, Kenneth and Margaret Sams married one another for the fourth time. They had first married in 1944.

 

Hope & Greenwood

Hope & Greenwood is a traditional confectionery business.

Location: Legion House, 75 Lower Road, Kenley, Surrey, CR8 5NH

Website: www.hopeandgreenwood.co.uk

 

Hotel Chocolat

Hotel Chocolat is a chocolates business. In the late 1980s Angus Thirlwell and Peter Harris established a firm that furnished branded boxes of peppermints to corporate clients. Responding to their clients wishes, the pair started supplying chocolates as well. With time, they dropped their original product line. In 1993 the Hotel Chocolat brand was formally launched.

In 2006 Hotel Chocolat moved upstream and bought the Rabot Estate cocoa plantation on St Lucia.

Location: 4 Monmouth Street, WC2H 9HB

78 Strand, WC2R 0DE

Website: www.hotelchocolat.com

 

Melt Chocolates

Melt Chocolates was founded by Louise Nason in 2005.

Location: 6 Clarendon Road, W11 3AA (purple, grey)

59 Ledbury Road, W11 2AA (orange, yellow)

Website: www.meltchocolates.com

 

Nestlé

Website: www.nestle.co.uk

Milky Bar

The Milky Bar Kid advertising campaign was created in 1961 by a team that led by Mike Reynolds (1931-2007). Mr Reynolds ended his career in advertising as the creative director of Grey Advertising. (He then went on to devote his life to parrots, setting up the World Parrot Trust.)

Website: www.milkybar.co.uk

 

Nick'N'Mix

Woolworth s Pick and mix confectionery section was known to thieving small children as nick and mix .

In 2009 the U.K. company went into administration and was wound up subsequently. The Australian one remains one of its country s principal retailers.

Location: 242-246 Marylebone Road, NW1 6JQ (blue, orange)

 

Prestat

Antoine Dufour devised the chocolate truffle in 1895. Seven years later he opened Prestate in South Molton Street. In 1950 the Croft brothers acquired the business.

Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother was partial to chocolate. She developed a particular fondness for Prestat's chocolate truffles. However, she disliked the predominantly brown box in which they were sold. She allowed her opinion to become known to the firm. The packaging was redesigned. The year afterwards, 1975, she granted the business a royal warrant.

In 1980 Stanley S. Cohen acquired the business from the Crofts. It moved its premises to Princes Arcade.

Location: 14 Princes Arcade, SW1Y 6DS (blue, turquoise)

Website: https://prestat.com

 

Valeo Confectionery

Website: www.valeoconfectionery.com

Barrett's Sweet Factory

George Osborn Barrett founded a confectionery 1848 Islington

In 1880 moved to Wood Green (behind the shopping city). Expanded in the 1930s and the 1960s.

Different smells on different days - chocolate and liquorice.

Five acres at its height

In the late 1970s moved to Hertfordshire. Closed in 1980.

Merged with Trebor.

Location: The Chocolate Factory, Clarendon Road, Wood Green, N22 6XJ

Paynes

Paynes is a confectionery business. Its brands include Just Brazils and Poppets.

George Payne & Company was founded in East London in 1896.

Website www.paynes.co.uk

David Backhouse 2024