The Historic sign of
London’s Tobacconists
You can find information on London’s tobacco heritage in the most amazing places
and a recent trawl of the internet has revealed a wonderful piece of London’s Tobacco
history.
The wonderfully idiosyncratic web site www.derelictlondon.com is a collection of all those shops and
places that you may have passed in your childhood or on a previous visit to London but which have now
sadly fallen into decline. Before they are either demolished or refurbished Paul Talling walks the streets
and records them for posterity.
On his site he explains the discovery of one piece
of tobacco history:
“Among the many neglected shops I found the
remarkable old store front of a tobacconists
in New Cross which has, displayed above it,
the Tobacco Roll which was the sign of the
tobacconist.
It is an extremely rare example and the only other
one Derelict London is aware of is actually in
the Museum of London at the Barbican which is
always worth a visit if you have never been.
These signs date back to the days when a large
proportion of the population could not read.
Merchants used graphic signs such as the barber’s
striped pole or the pawnbroker's three balls to let
customers know what their business was.
In "The Social History of Smoking" (1869) by
George Apperson says:
The "Tobacco Roll," was one of the commonest of
early tobacconists' signs, and was in constant use
for a couple of centuries.
One would have thought that a representation
of the tobacco plant itself would have been a
more natural and comprehensive sign than
one particular preparation of the herb, yet
representations of the plant were rare, while those
of the compressed tobacco known as pudding
or roll in the form of a "Tobacco Roll," were very
frequently used as signs.
Before the end of the seventeenth century,
however, the signs were ceasing to have any
necessary association with the trade carried on
under them, and tobacconists are found with
shop-signs which had no reference in any way to
tobacco.
Books by Paul Talling:
www.derelictlondon.com
www.londonslostrivers.com
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