IT may be a habit that is going out of fashion but a reconstruction of a Victorian tobacco shop has just reopened for business in Winchester.

The shop, at the City Museum, has been designed to faithfully copy the trading style of yesteryear and even includes the traditional scales used to dole out tobacco more than 100 years ago.

Pictured in the two shots is current Winchester City Council curator of art and exhibitions Christopher Bradbury.

He was photographed using the original store in the High Street in 1975, so to celebrate the reopening of the shop, the museum service recreated the scene with Sher Kent, the council's museum visitor services manager, serving him in the modern shot.

Mr Bradbury said he recalls the Foster's Shop with great fondness, and added: "I remember Mr Cobb, who took over the shop from Mr Foster in 1933 until 1978.

"I enjoyed 'Parson's Pleasure' and 'Baby's Bottom', which you will be relieved to know are different brands of tobacco!"

The shop is situated in the Winton Gallery in the museum in The Square and is reconstructed exactly as the shop stood in the High Street.