Alfred Dunhill, 30 Duke Street inside the maturing room!

[99call]

new pages added, in wrong order, but for some reason refusing to edit.  

I've read in quite a few different sources that the British tradition of maturing, is closely connected to the concern around the impact of the sea voyage, and ensuring the cigars are kept with the merchant until these negative effects have been mitigated.  I think we can see these actions as hand in glove. 

In terms of whatever storage conditions Dunhill decided upon, I think we can quite easily assume they were the right conditions based on their own experience.  Like us all of us, it would be utter madness to stick with any conditions that promoted either pests, drying out, or mould.      I can't imagine the nightmare that would ensue in those maturing rooms if the wrong conditions were set.   Regardless of the cigars.   you'd be getting black mould on the timber, warping furniture, corroding nails. etc etc    I've got a feeling, they knew what they were doing. 

[99call]

Just thought I'd add this to the thread as I always wondered what 30 Duke Street looked like at street level before it got bombed by the Luftwaffe, today I found that image for the first time. 

[BrightonCorgi]

On 9/14/2021 at 8:23 AM, Wookie said:

We had a nice Dunhill shop in Boston in the 1990s.  Lovely place, but the cigars were pretty bad. I think the transition from cuban to NC was tough on Dunhill and Davidoff. Kelner solved the problem for Davidoff.  I don't think Dunhill ever "figured" it out.

The Dunhill store on Newbury cigars were too humid usually. Some of the lines were decent, but mostly the Cuban copy-cat brands on the time. Buying clothes while smoking a cigar and drinking a Scotch is something that would be a welcome return.

Last Dunhill store I went to was in Singapore and you'd be hard pressed to know they had any history in tobacco.

[99call]

10 hours ago, BrightonCorgi said:

The Dunhill store on Newbury cigars were too humid usually. Some of the lines were decent, but mostly the Cuban copy-cat brands on the time. Buying clothes while smoking a cigar and drinking a Scotch is something that would be a welcome return.

Last Dunhill store I went to was in Singapore and you'd be hard pressed to know they had any history in tobacco.

These two pages of the H&F website is pretty interesting on this topic.

[Stevieboy]

Fascinating read. I learned a lot.

[revealer14]

Amazing to see these pics. Thanks for sharing!

[Jaks93]

A lost piece of some of the finest history 😥 Thanks for sharing👌