Buy cigars in London
Cuban and New World cigars posted to every E, EC, N, NW, SE, SW, W, WC address in and around London — usually the next working day, kept at 68% humidity until the moment they are packed.
- Next working day
- E, EC, N, NW, SE, SW, W, WC postcodes
- Free delivery, £230 minimum
The short version
Can you get cigars delivered in London?
Southern Smoke Cigars delivers to London and the surrounding E, EC, N, NW, SE, SW, W, WC postcode areas. We are an online tobacconist with no shop counter in London, so orders are placed on the website and sent by Royal Mail. Order before 2pm on a working day and your cigars are dispatched the same day and normally arrive in London the next working day. Delivery is free on every order, and our minimum order is £230 before delivery.
The main points
- Dispatched same day if you order before 2pm, Monday to Friday
- Royal Mail Tracked 24, usually next working day
- Covers E, EC, N, NW, SE, SW, W, WC and all surrounding postcodes
- Someone over 18 must sign for it at the door
We ship to London, we do not have a shop there
Worth being straight about, because a lot of searches for cigars in London are looking for somewhere to walk into. We are not that: stock sits in our own walk-in humidors at 65-69% relative humidity until an order comes in, then goes out sealed, with a free Boveda 69% pack, in plain unbranded packaging. What London gets for that is a box nobody has left drying under shop lighting, usually the next working day.
Keeping cigars in London
London runs warmer than anywhere else in the country because of the urban heat island — a few degrees above the surrounding counties, and most pronounced overnight in winter. For a humidor that means a longer warm season and a real reason to keep it off a south-facing windowsill and away from a flat's communal heating riser, which many blocks run hot and cannot be turned down.
None of which changes the target inside the box — 16-18°C and 65-70% humidity — only how hard your house works against it. The guide to storing cigars in the British climate covers the rest.
Delivery to London in detail
Central London postcodes are on the earliest Royal Mail runs, so a Tracked 24 parcel posted before our 2pm cut-off is usually with you the following morning rather than the following afternoon.
- Royal Mail Tracked 24 — free on every order. Order before 2pm on a working day and it leaves the same day, normally arriving in London the next working day.
- Royal Mail Special Delivery — £9.95. Guaranteed by 1pm the next working day, fully tracked and insured.
- Postcodes covered. E, EC, N, NW, SE, SW, W, WC and everything around London, including Westminster, Camden, Islington, Greenwich, Richmond.
One thing worth knowing about London
Flats are the complication rather than distance. A concierge or a parcel room usually solves it, but the courier still needs someone over 18 to sign, and a concierge who is not willing to do that will send the parcel back. If your building has one, it is worth asking first.
Age checks on the doorstep in London
Cigars are age-restricted, so whoever answers the door in London has to be 18 or over and the courier will ask them to prove it. Nobody in, and Royal Mail cards it for a redelivery or a collection with ID. Where you light it afterwards is a separate question with a different answer either side of the border: smoking in enclosed public places has been illegal in England since 1 July 2007, which makes a cigar in London an outdoor or a private-room proposition.
London and tobacco
London has sold cigars from St James's and Jermyn Street for the better part of two centuries, and the trade is still concentrated there. Hunters and Frankau, the company that imports every legitimate Cuban cigar into the UK, is a London firm.
What London customers order most
Much the same as the rest of the UK: Cuban boxes with the green English Market Selection stamp for people who know what they want, Cuaba Divinos Box of 25 being a regular, and Nicaraguan and Honduran robustos for people working out what they like. London and the Greater London around it come to roughly 8.9 million people, which is a wide enough spread of orders for the pattern to be fairly clear. If you are starting from scratch, the beginner's guide is a better place to start than a product page.
Ordering and paying
Bank transfer or cryptocurrency; no card payments. Your order is reserved the moment it is placed and nothing leaves the humidor until payment clears. Bank details go over live chat rather than email — open the chat, quote your order number. Full terms are on the delivery page, or email us at info@southernsmokecigars.com.
Delivery to London
Questions we get asked
Delivery, storage, age checks and Cuban stock in London.
Do you have a cigar shop in London?
No. Southern Smoke Cigars is an online tobacconist with no counter in London or anywhere else — stock is held in our own humidors at a steady 68% humidity and posted out rather than sat on an open shelf. For a E, EC, N, NW, SE, SW, W, WC address that means ordering before 2pm and having it the next working day, which is quicker than most people manage to get to a shop. Our minimum order is £230, and delivery is free.
How long does cigar delivery to London take?
Order before 2pm Monday to Friday and it is dispatched the same day on Royal Mail Tracked 24, which normally reaches London the next working day. Central London postcodes are on the earliest Royal Mail runs, so a Tracked 24 parcel posted before our 2pm cut-off is usually with you the following morning rather than the following afternoon. Royal Mail Special Delivery is £9.95 and is guaranteed by 1pm the next working day.
Which London postcodes do you deliver to?
All of them. We cover the E, EC, N, NW, SE, SW, W, WC postcode areas and everywhere else in the UK, including Westminster, Camden, Islington. Delivery is free to all of them; the only condition is our £230 minimum order. Flats are the complication rather than distance. A concierge or a parcel room usually solves it, but the courier still needs someone over 18 to sign, and a concierge who is not willing to do that will send the parcel back. If your building has one, it is worth asking first.
How should I store cigars in London?
London runs warmer than anywhere else in the country because of the urban heat island — a few degrees above the surrounding counties, and most pronounced overnight in winter. For a humidor that means a longer warm season and a real reason to keep it off a south-facing windowsill and away from a flat's communal heating riser, which many blocks run hot and cannot be turned down. Whatever the weather outside, the target inside the box is the same: 16-18°C and 65-70% relative humidity. Every order leaves here with a free Boveda 69% pack, which holds that on its own for a couple of months.
Do I have to be in to sign for cigars in London?
Someone over 18 does, yes. Cigars are age-restricted under the Children and Families Act 2014, so the courier asks for proof of age at the door. If nobody is in, Royal Mail cards it and holds it at the delivery office covering your E, EC, N, NW, SE, SW, W, WC postcode, which you can collect from with ID. A safe-place instruction will not work for this — an age-restricted parcel cannot be left in a porch.
Where can I smoke a cigar in London?
Outdoors, or somewhere private. Smoking in enclosed public places and workplaces has been illegal in England since 1 July 2007, so London has no indoor cigar lounges in the sense that Havana or Madrid does — the law is the same across England and there is no exemption a bar can buy its way into. Covered outdoor terraces are the legal version, provided they are not substantially enclosed.
Does London have any tobacco history?
London has sold cigars from St James's and Jermyn Street for the better part of two centuries, and the trade is still concentrated there. Hunters and Frankau, the company that imports every legitimate Cuban cigar into the UK, is a London firm. None of which makes us a London shop — we post from one humidor to your door — but it is a better answer than most cities can give.
Can I buy genuine Cuban cigars in London?
Yes, and the same stock reaches London as anywhere else in the UK. Every Cuban box carries the green English Market Selection stamp and comes through Hunters and Frankau, the only company permitted to import Habanos S.A. cigars into the UK. Excise duty and VAT are paid before it reaches Greater London, and both are already in the price on the page.