robinie

I am researching well-known names of sweet shops for specific candies found only in England or London. I am writing a book and the character has been living in London. She flying back to the states, but is eating some candy from her favorite store in London which would be ???????? Or perhaps she had time to eat a luscious meal at ?????? before boarding her plane. Any suggestions to restaurants and foods ordered would be of great help. Thank you in advance for your assist. robin

PatrickLondon

Most of our sweets are sold through shops that sell lots of other things. Thorntons is a big chain of shops that sell chocolates and (I think) some toffees, and they are on every high street. Fortnum and Mason probably have their own brand - if you want your character to be swish, that's probably the one to go for; she could eat there too, depending on how traditional/ middle-aged/ unimaginative you want her to be (Selfridges is another possibility). If she's a bit more young and trendy, Harvey Nichols would probably be better. If she has more money than sense, and no taste at all, Harrods.

Kate

Patrick raises an interesting point. Can you give us some clues to her character (age, character, social background) so we can suggest the sort of place she would shop or eat at)

Kavey

Another choice might be a Patisserie - there are many in Central London. My mind has gone blank but I'm sure someone will be able to think of the names of some of these.

Or perhaps an ice cream vendors - I'm thinking of Rendezvous Tea Shop in Leicester Square that sells ice creams and frozen yoghurts but there are probably better ones.

As has been said though, it would be much easier to suggest the right choice if we knew about your character.

Tallulah

Firstly, we don't eat 'candy' - we eat sweets or chocolate. Probably Cadbury's is the most popular chocolate brand. You can check out the website at http://www.cadbury.com. It's also what friends of mine who now live in the States miss most.

If you want to be realistic, the airports are too far out of town to enable her to eat at a restaurant as such, and Heathrow/Gatwick etc are more geared toward McDonalds/Garfunkels/Pizza Express rubbish. It could be more realistic if she'd brought a Marks & Spencer sandwich with her to the airport - can't get more English than a M&S 'packed lunch'!!

flygirl

how about Patisserie Valerie? or an ice cream cone with Cadbury Milk Flake on it - from street vendors.

SiobhanP

Flygirl - we call the Ice cream with a flake a "99" in Dublin.

m_kingdom2

She's probably visited a newsagent and bought some cheap sweets.

She sounds terribly young eating candy on a plane, are you sure this is appropriate? Is it a children's book? If not, I'd advise something far deeper and romantic/dramatic to invoke a passion and a loss from leaving London. Sucking a humbug isn't quite the same is it now?

Spygirl

Ordinarily, I would agree with Patrick that Fortnum and Mason would be the one, however, I DO know of a chocolate-only shop, highly regarded, where the proprietor makes her own chocolates-it may be the only shop in London like this. It's called
"Rococo Chocolates" located on Kings Road, Chelsea, SW3. They even have a website: www.rococochocolates.com.

Underhill

How about Charbonnel et Walker--the one near Harrods?

Spygirl

Charbonnel et Walker -likewise a good option.

I just now saw what Mk2 wrote-"...invoke a passion and loss at leaving London" oh PUH-LEEZE! -a little Harlequin Romancey-don't you think???