The English Shop, St. Charles, Missouri 

A statue of a Buckingham Palace guard, complete with red coat and black bearskin hat, greeted the man at the door. Two shelves protruding from the guard’s stomach displayed a blue box of Jaffa Cakes, shortbread cookies and bottles of ginger beer – just a sample of the many food items The English Shop in downtown St. Charles, Mo., sells. 

The man refused what the guard had to offer. Brian Beardsley, of St. Charles, knew exactly what he needed and so did Eileen Prichard, owner of The English Shop.

“Kippers!” Prichard yelled when she saw Beardsley. She bustled out from behind the register to help him.

Kippers, or smoked herring, are something for which most Americans do not develop a taste, Prichard explained.

Beardsley agreed, but he wanted to buy them anyway for his mother. He said his mother loves kippers, but she is not like most Americans. Beardsley’s mother is from Bath, England. 

And Beardsley is not just any customer. He has been shopping at The English Shop for 10 years.

First-timers may find themselves attracted to the Irish, English and Scottish flags flying above The English Shop’s gray, wreath-adorned door. After stepping inside and perusing the shelves of real British food, which includes Aero chocolate bars and yellow boxes of Weetabix cereal, the cultural experience becomes complete. Customers want another taste of Great Britain.
And another. And another.

“Regulars are what hold me up, what keep me going,” Prichard said.

And the regulars have kept her going for 21 years, buying everything from tea to scone mixes.

As a native of Kings Lynn, England, Prichard knows all about English food and culture. After her marriage to an American soldier in the 1950s, Prichard moved with her husband to the United States in 1974.

Being in the U.S. gave Prichard a whole new perspective on food. She discovered a love for peanut butter, something not available in England in the ’70s. However, when it came to her beloved tea, she could not find a decent cup. Frustrated, she gave up drinking tea.

Then, in 1984, an idea struck her.

“I just decided I was going to open a British store mainly for the food,” she said. “You could never find any of the English food anywhere.”

Living in O’Fallon, Ill., Prichard said she heard about downtown St. Charles through a friend who, at the time, owned an English restaurant in the area. Prichard visited the historic part of the suburban city and knew it was where she would open up shop. It felt like home.

“[Downtown St. Charles] has a European kind of charm about it where people not only come here but they walk around and shop,” Prichard said. “It may not be meats and grocers and bakers, but it’s still walking around like they do back home.”

Prichard said that watching children shop at her store reminds her of the shops in England.

“They will spend 15 minutes hunting around [the candy bars],” she said. “It’s like the little corner stores that they used to have in the little neighborhoods.”

The downtown area of St. Charles is like its own neighborhood with 125 unique shops and boutiques and 17 restaurants and bars. Many patrons think The English Shop fits right in.

“It is homey and different from what you see in department stores,” said Kassie Manor of St. Louis.

“It’s what you come out to St. Charles for.”

Before opening The English Shop, Prichard placed an advertisement in The St. Louis Post-Dispatch to find out if the public would have any interest in such a store. Prichard said the advertisement read, “Do you miss your English food? If you miss your PG Tips tea, let me know.”

And people did.

Guided only by her experience working in department stores and as a cosmetic representative for Elizabeth Arden, Prichard began buying food products for The English Shop through wholesale companies in Britain. The companies began to ship the food to the United States.

Prichard also stocked up on specialty gift items from overseas. Today, the store’s gift inventory includes teapots in all sizes and colors, greeting cards, flags and even DVDs of Eddie Izzard, a popular British comedian.

The food shelves are packed with British chocolate bars and candy. Sweetened British biscuits, or what Americans call cookies, take up two shelves.

The English Shop would not be complete without a wide array of tea, including, of course, Prichard’s favorite, PG Tips. Prichard also stocks novelty teas in metal tins painted to look like English phone booths. On one shelf sits Sherlock Holmes London Tea. Next to it is Prince of Wales Royal Wedding Blend, the commemorative tea for the wedding of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles.

Prichard said tea is the biggest seller.

“Once people get used to a good tea, they can’t go back,” she said. “Once they drink English tea, they’re hooked.”

For O’Fallon, Mo., residents Marge and Keaven Moutray, tea is not the only reason to visit The English Shop. They visit for all the food.

“We can get our little English treats,” Marge Moutray said.

Marge Moutray likes British food not only because it tastes good but also because of her connections to it.

“In college, I worked for my boyfriend’s father at a Scottish bakery,” she said. “I got hooked on English goods.”

“Tell what your maiden name is,” Keaven Moutray prompted his wife.

Marge Moutray smiled and rolled her eyes before revealing her own Scottish ancestry.

“MacBeth,” she said.

It appears that not only does downtown St. Charles have a British atmosphere but it also is home to a lot of British people.

Prichard admitted she is amazed at the number of people living in the area who have ties to the United Kingdom. She said she also is amazed at the way Americans delve into genealogy.

“[Customers] say, ‘I come from England’ or ‘I come from Ireland,’” Prichard said. “I’ll say, ‘No, you don’t. You come from America,’ and they’ll say, ‘Yes, well, my parents’ parents, my grandfather … .’ They love that. They’re hung up on that. I never saw that in England – that ancestry.”

The customers also seem to be hung up on British food.

“It’s kind of a dodgy business,” Prichard said. “You see businesses come and go. But I got to know the people. The people are the best part.”
She laughed as she told of a recent encounter with some of her regulars.

“Yesterday, a lady came in, her and her husband and her son [who] was now taller than his dad,” she said. “And I remember when [the son] was 1. In a baby stroller. And we laughed because here he is. The baby is now getting ready to go to college.”

Changes like this remind Prichard of how time flies. She said she never expected to run this store for 21 years.

“You reach a certain age and wonder, ‘Gosh, am I going to have to retire?’” she said. “It’s part of me now. You started out with one little shelf with a few packs of tea and some pickles, and then you sort of expand. It’s like, I made it. I did this. This is mine. It would be hard to give up.”