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Kim has a sweet thing going on
Kim France couldn't find the flying saucers, sherbert dips and bon bons of her childhood so decided she had to sell them herself, writes Katherine Hayward
THE bewildering display of multi-coloured glass jars stuffed with aniseed balls and palma violets, flying saucers and cola cubes on offer at a newly opened West Hampstead sweet shop is enough to send anyone down memory lane, when penny sweets actually cost a penny and the sweet-sour zing on your tongue from a sherbet fountain couldn’t get much closer to heaven.
“I absolutely love sweeties,” says Kim France, 45, owner of Wicked Sweeties. “My husband used to get me a sweet treat every Sunday but one day I woke up and nothing took my fancy. All my old favourites had changed so I decided that I had to stock them myself.”
The big sellers at the shop are the old classics of sherbet lemons, fruit pips and their weird and wonderful selection of liquorice that draws in the enthusiasts.
“One of our most loyal customers is a Pontefract lady, who comes in dressed in a nice suit almost every day and buys a small bag of Pontefract cakes,” says Maureen Gallagher, 46, who manages the shop. As well as the soft liquorice discs, she also stocks salt liquorice and liquorice wood, both of which customers have explicitly requested they order in.
“Liquorice is the marmite of sweets: you either love it or you hate it,” says France. “I can’t stand some of the stuff but it flies off the shelf.”
Ms France’s favourite is the toffee bon bon. “It has to be the proper kind,” she says assertively. With the precision and attention to detail of a wine connoisseur she explains: “It has to melt in the mouth, but not be too sticky. There must be real buttery toffee in the middle and a good sprinkling of powder round the outside.”
Most of her customers have similarly specific ideas of what they are looking for and Ms France is happy to expand her stock.
“One honeycomb cluster might be perfect for one customer, but not quite right for the next,” she explains. “Customers give us some of our best ideas.” To cater for all their needs, Ms France has had to source sweets from as far away as Spain and Holland
Her main customers are people in their 30s who love the idea of travelling back to their childhood for the afternoon.
Children have been more wary of the shop, but she says that as soon as they familiarise themselves with the strange new delicacies on offer they become regular customers.
“We offer the kids the whole experience of a sweet shop that you don’t get anymore, with news agents and supermarkets,” says Ms France. “They can come in here after school, look around and take their time to pick an assortment to fill their bags.”
Now the shop offers party bags. They have also recently introduced a variety of organic drinks for the summer months, but if you thought it was all getting a bit too chi chi, never fear – there’s always the option of a cool and creamy lemonade float.
Wicked Sweeties is also keen to mix the old classic feel with a contemporary twist. “We didn’t want to make the place drab and dreary. Our shop has a funky feel to it so we’ve brought in sugar free sweets and organic chocolates for the high-market customers,” explains Ms Gallagher, whose parents owned a sweet shop when she was a child. As a sign of the times, they are also just about to launch their website for long distance orders. “It’s the only way it’s going to make the shop really big,” Ms Gallagher adds.
* Wicked Sweeties
4 Broadwell Parade
Broadhurst Gardens, NW6. 0845 60119182 |
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