A newsagents that was left empty for 30 years has been transformed into a sweet shop.

Zoe Barnes, who has lived in Sevenoaks all her life, dreamed about opening her own store, after seeing the town “deteriorate” over the years.

As a child, she grew up visiting a sweet shop in St James’s Road called The Chocolate Box.

The 44-year-old said: “If I had been good at school all week I was allowed to go to the sweet shop on a Friday and get a treat.

“It was a tiny little shop and if you went in with 50p you’d get a lot for your money, there were 1p sweets and 5p crisps.

“I just used to love it. It was something that continued throughout my whole childhood until I was a teen and they closed.

“It’s one of my fondest memories of growing up.”

When Covid hit, she was a beauty therapist so was unable to work, leaving her “unsettled”.

In November 2022, she decided to start an online sweet business focusing mainly on retro sweets.

She explained: “Then I started doing pick ‘n’ mix for children, party cones, then I moved onto weddings, christenings and gender reveals.”

A unit in St Johns Hill in Sevenoaks that had been derelict for around 30 years became available at the start of March.

“I booked an appointment to view it the day after I drove past and saw it had been put up for let and two months later we had opened the shop,” she said.

“When I was a teenager, it was a newsagents. It’s quite nice because I’ve had local people come in saying ‘I remember when it was a paper shop’.

“I’ve always wanted my own sweet shop it’s always been my dream.”

On May 11, she opened Retro Zo’s Sweets, around the corner from where The Chocolate Box once was.

The shop offers normal pick ‘n’ mix sweets, American sweets and retro sweets – which Zoe says have been the most popular.

She added: “The response so far has been so positive, I’ve got my regulars and they’ll come in after school, and on Saturdays you have parents and grandparents bringing them in.

“We have a boy who comes in every week for cola cubes which I love.

“Its very surreal, I still walk in some days and turn the lights on and look around thinking I’ve actually fulfilled my dream.

“‘The other day I had a lady come in who actually used to work in The Chocolate Box which felt really full circle.

“Throughout the years I’ve seen everything deteriorate and I miss what it used to be like.

‘I missed that old-fashioned family-run business where everybody knew everybody.

“It‘s only been five weeks so it’s very new but it feels so lovely, especially when I get the older generation come in who still talk about The Chocolate Box.

“I love the community feel.”