When the Ghantewala sweet shop was set up in 1790, George Washington was the US president, Mozart was performing in Vienna, France was in the grip of French Revolution, Britain was ruled by King George III and Shah Alam II was the Mughal emperor who ruled Delhi.
It was at the time of such momentous world events that Lala Sukh Lal Jain, a small-time sweet maker from Nagaur in the western state of Rajasthan, arrived in Delhi to earn a living.
"He knew how to make sweets and always used the finest of ingredients," says Sohail Hashmi, a writer and documentary filmmaker who conducts heritage walks in the city.
As his popularity - and sales - grew, Lala Sukh Lal Jain graduated to a pushcart and by 1790, his business had grown so much that he could open up a large shop in the bustling Chandni Chowk market, close to the Red Fort, the seat of the Mughal empire.
Sushant Jain, the current owner of the shop, is the scion of the Jain family who had to make the "really tough decision" to shut the shop.
"I've been receiving calls from old customers every day, they are very upset. Some of them are even angry, they've been telling me 'how dare you close the shop'?"
From the beginning, Ghantewala's most popular sweet has been Sohan Halwa. "It was the favourite of Mughal emperors, it was loved by India's presidents and prime ministers and it was also much in demand among the ordinary residents of Delhi," says Sushant Jain.
The shop found mention in the 1912 Delhi Gazetteer which said their sweets had "a pre-eminent position in Delhi's gastronomic art". Going through Mr Jain's files and family album is like a lesson in history - there are letters of appreciation from Nepal's former king Birendra, a senior United Nations official, Indian politicians and celebrities.
In 1954, Indira Gandhi sent boxes of Ghantewala sweets to Indian troops based in Korea
For the 1954 Bollywood film Chandni
Chowk, a replica of the shop was created on the set in Mumbai to give
the film an authentic feel
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