Gone but not forgotten – G. Smith & Sons, tobacconist and purveyor of snuff

The first of a new series remembering shops and businesses I have known or used myself that have closed down or been demolished in the last few years.

Today I'm rembering a shop in Charing Cross Road. It sat within a long line of antiquarian bookshops, that used to run from Cambridge Circus down to Leicester Square Station.  

G.F Smith & Sons at No.74, was a beautiful old tobacconist's shop with a lovely old mirrored frontage and hand-painted gilt lettering showing they were purveyors of fine cigars and smoking paraphernalia. The shop was established in 1879 and used to be able to claim that it was one of the oldest/longest-trading shops in the Soho area. It was also the meeting place for the The London Snuff Club

I took these pics in 2008 when the shop was a garish orange (it was soonafter repainted royal blue – you can just make out the scaffolding in the mirror).

But, sadly, the shop closed in 2012 or 2013. I can't seem to find a definitive date or what exactly caused the shop's demise but I suspect the revised smoking laws of 2006 had a huge effect on sales – see above for their adaption of My Way that was in the shops' window in August 2008 – the pink highlights are mine (grr!). And I suspect that the humidor at the rear of the shop fell foul of the regulations against indoor smoking within work premises. Some products and reference can be found on Google here.

As you can see by this screenshot, from Google Streetview (July 2015), the shop can be seen with original woodwork painted a soft beige colour, but I wonder what became of Smith's lovely hand-painted glass, the tobacco stock and and all the advertising ephemera?

Charing Cross Road used to be lined with bookshops of all kinds and has been the inspiration for novels and films etc. The larger shops were at the northern end (Foyles, Waterstones, Blackwells etc) and smaller independents specialising in certain fields especially, art, maps, second-hand and rare antique books could be found south of Cambridge Circus.
At the time of writing, this specific section of the road mentioned above has only about three bookshops remaining, the others having been replaced with cafés and coffee houses, souvenir and clothes shops; crushed under the wheels of high rent and homogenisation. It's called progress.
More antiquarian shops can be found a few minutes' walk away along St Giles Court and St Martin's Court, (both further down Charing Cross on the left just after Leicester Square station) where you can still while away the hours amongst books, prints, maps, coins, stamps, medals and more.

Hmmm... thinks... Smith the stationer, Smith the umbrella maker, Smith & Nephew the chemists and Smith the tobacconist and snuff seller... any more?