'There aren’t many shops like this left': Sheffield sweet shop has served city residents for nearly 150 years

Granelli’s sweet shop on Broad Street in Sheffield has been operating as a sweet shop and ice cream parlour since 1874, making it one of the oldest confectionery shops in the country.

It was originally set up as an ice cream shop by two brothers who came to the city from Italy in the 1870s but later expanded to become a sweet shop business, faithful to the city’s residents for nearly 150 years.

The shop is jam-packed with old-fashioned favourites, including cola cubes, pear drops, and other retro candy lining the walls – in total, there are around 160 boxes, jars, and trays of sweets for customers to choose from.

Julian Hunt, Owner of Granelli’s, said: “It all started in 1874, a long, long time ago, 148th year now, same family all the way, originally from Italy, my great great great grandfather started it and we’re still here today.

“We’ve survived everything that has been thrown at us, basically changes in the area, the pub next door closed, the pub across the road closed, buildings being knocked down. We’re pretty much the only building left on the street from the original days.

“The shop is here every day, Monday to Sunday, it’s part of the community, and you get to know people, especially in the old days when there was the garage up the road and the pub landlord next door, but they’ve all gone now.”

“We’ve kept it traditional really, the layout is the same as it used to be, give or take, apart from the extra perspex glass that we added, which has prepared us for Covid in a way, but it’s not changed much traditionally. It’s stayed the same since day one, and that’s the main point of it, a lot of the customers have said over the years, don’t change, keep it traditional and have old-fashioned sweets,” said Julian.

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Favourite sweets at the retro candy shop include wine gums, Yorkshire mixture, jelly babies, as well as fizzy bubble bottles.

Julian said: “You can’t beat the old traditional wine gums, people also like Yorkshire mix, and jelly babies and the kids enjoy terrific turtles, Dracula fangs, fizzy bubble bottles are quite popular as well, but a lot of it is all traditional.

“Obviously, we can still get these sweets, and that’s the main thing, but it’s a dying art; there aren’t many shops like this left anywhere in the country.

As a result of Covid-19, the shop was forced to close, and the fleet of ice cream vans that usually attend large events have been left stationary.

Speaking about how the pandemic has impacted the business, Julian said: “It has been a hard time and a really horrific year, not just with the shop, the ice cream vans can’t go out either, it’s unprecedented, we’ve never had to close in our history of nearly 150 years.”

Whilst Granelli’s has been closed, staff have been preparing hampers so that sweet-toothed regulars can still enjoy confectionary at home.

The hampers are made to order and include a mixture of sweets, both old and modern, depending on the customer’s personal taste.

Visit their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/granellissweetssheffield/

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