Friday 17 April 2009

Meggezones

This sign in Brockley proudly offers Meggezones at 2/4 (about 12p in decimal). There's still a chemist there, and Meggezones are still being made, but you'll need a few pounds rather than a few shillings to buy a packet.

Meggezones are menthol pastilles (they also used to contain peppermint, licquorice, chloroform and benzoin), whose strange name comes from the firm's founder, a Mr Meggeson. He started the company in 1796, and by the early nineteenth century it was making a range of syrups, sweets and lozenges for coughs and colds at its Bermondsey factory. Other products included dyspepsia tablets and lemon barley water. Today, the brand is owned by multinational Schering Plough.



2 comments:

Peter Leonard LEA said...

When I was a small boy back in 1936 my grandfather, Stephen Lea lived in Catford and if my memory serves me right he was the Managing Director of Meggezones. Can anyone confirm that ?

Peter Lea
Limassol, Cyprus

Unknown said...

The Meggezone factory was across the road from St Joseph's RC Primary School in Bermondsey. My brother and myself would pass it going home from school. In warm weather, the side door would be open, and the ladies inside would hand us a fistful of Meggezones to suck.