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What do you do? I satisfy the burning desire of those
old enough and I dispense sweet success to those too
young.
How long have you been here? My landlord thinks
for too long and wishes me to go, I’m a tenacio<strong>us</strong>
character and k<strong>now</strong> nothing else so I would rather like
to stay and keep a 200-year-old tradition alive. Tobacco
has been sold from these premises since before the days
of Tom Paine.
What do you sell? Loose tobacco for pipes and
hand rolling, pre-packed cigarettes, rolling machines,
tea, coffee, biscuits, cakes, sugar, jam, margarine and
fudge…
What are your bestsellers? There will be some
disappointed to k<strong>now</strong> that tobacco sales still make up
50% of the shop’s turnover. Aside from that, chocolate
and sweets comprise the majority.
What is your personal favourite? My sales assistant,
John Evans, and the rather lovely dark chocs called
Danucci. It has to be dark chocolate for me, and a nice
Dutch cigar, and also the wonderful aroma of a very
old pipe tobacco called Twist. It’s spun in the style of a
rope along a ropewalk, a tobacco from Nelson’s time
and still an amazing seller. One looks very buccaneering
with a pipe, the great poet and writer Louis MacNeice’s
widow <strong>us</strong>ed to sing railroading songs at the end of the
quay in Southern Ireland, smoking a pipe and waving a
hurricane lamp.
I hear your time in these premises may be limited,
can you tell <strong>us</strong> about that? I have come to the end
of my lease and my landlord wishes to charge me
unreasonably to stay. I hope I have until Christmas to
photograph: katie moorman
TRADE SECRETS STEPHEN ‘CATLIN’ WISCHHUSEN
find alternative premises, and will be very happy to
move the shop to the other end of Western Road if
necessary. What has embarrassed me, even made me a
little tearful, is the great affection in which this place
is held.
How does it make you feel? I don’t want to go, it’s
my life’s ambition to live to 110 and be found dead
behind this very till clutching a £5 note. When I do
I don’t want the theatrical closing of curtains, I want
flames licking at my coffin and a gramophone playing
Gracie Fields singing, “Wish me luck as you wave me
goodbye.”
Do you think residential conversions have
contributed to the escalating cost of commercial
property in Lewes? No, beca<strong>us</strong>e I have to say this
particular block of shops is sacrosanct. The irony is
that this shop was once residential - it formed part
of an Elizabethan hall. In 1976 the rent on this shop
was £280 per annum and it was possible to make a
living. Now the margin on tobacco is as little as 4%,
and on sweets it’s down from 25% to about 16%. The
volume of sales is not enough to pay higher rent, but
I understand this is not my landlord’s problem: it’s a
problem of modern life.
What are your High Street highlights? I’m very fond
of Castle Sandwich Bar, and I like very much the lady
in Lewes Luggage. I find the Post Office absolutely
friendly. Catherine Darcy is a lioness of style in the
Vintage Shirt Company. There is so much, and this is
why people come to Lewes – to be served in local shops
by living people. Forget supermarkets, some of them
don’t even have cashiers! Interview by Chloë King
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