Victoria Jane

Victoria Jane, 54 North Street, Bristol BS3, 2017 • Shop named after me, as so many things are. I’m guessing from the mural that it’s a hairdresser.

The Barber Room, Steve’s Garage Ltd

The Barber Room, Steve’s Garage Ltd, 90-91 Plender Street, Borough of Camden, London NW1, 2003 • DIY signage meets groovy graffiti. By 2008 the whole block had been demolished and […]

Robin G. Renée

Robin G. Renée, 300 High Street, Dorking, Surrey, 2002 • Another example of classic 1960s wood slat and script signage, plus leafy wrought iron door grille. It later became Dorking […]

Rene Hair Fashions

Rene Hair Fashions, 111 Essex Road, Borough of Islington, London N1, 2002 • Classic 1960s weatherboard sign with 071 number. It disappeared soon after, and by 2017 the unit housed […]

Francesco

Francesco, 35 High Street, Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, 2018 • Superb mid-century Vitrolite shopfront, in classic pale green and black. The Gentlemen’s Hairdresser sign is in 1950s period lettering, while the […]

Robbie’s Gents Hairdressers

Robbie’s Gents Hairdressers, 36 Page Street, Grosvenor Estate, City of Westminster, London SW1, 2014 • Lodge house barbershop on a stunning checkerboard council estate designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens in […]

Sharpes Wholesale Ltd.

Sharpes Wholesale Ltd., 97 Deptford High Street, Borough of Lewisham, London SE8, 2002 • Wig shop sign painted with a delicate hand, similar to many other local shops, such as […]

Marcel

Marcel, 31 Chipstead Valley Road, Coulsdon, Borough of Croydon, London CR5, 2001 • Plucky festive cheer within peeling facade. Looks like a restaurant but, as its name suggests, is a […]

Roger of Finchley

Roger of Finchley, 5 Fortis Green, Finchley, Borough of Barnet, London N2, 2003 • Fnarr fnarr. By 2008 it was called The Retreat, which it still is.

Khubsoorat

Khubsoorat, 540 North Circular Road, Neasden, Borough of Brent, London NW10, 2016 • Bollywood name in a Hollywood font. There’s a famous 1980 Bollywood film called Khubsoorat  – in which […]

The Hairdressers

The Hairdressers, 282 Neasden Lane, Neasden, Borough of Brent, London NW10, 2016 • Generic name in old-school font on slatted 1960s-style signboard.

James Henry (Hampel & Sons)

James Henry (Hampel & Sons), Victoria Buildings, 171 Elm Grove, Southsea, City of Portsmouth, 2016 • 1978-founded crimper beneath an even older ghost sign, in a grand tiled parade. Maybe […]

Hares of Hexham

Hares of Hexham, 45 Fore Street, Hexham, Northumberland, 2016 • A sign sellotaped to the door of this traditional tobacco / sweetie / shaving emporium says “closed until further notice”. Sadly, […]

Hair and Body, Sole Man

Hair and Body, Sole Man Shoe Repairs, 25 & 25a Corbets Tey Road, Upminster, Borough of Havering, London RM14, 2016 • From plain-talking head to punning toe in a faded […]

Trim Time Barber Shop

Trim Time Barber Shop, 6 Northampton Street, Leicester LE1, 2016 • Best barber’s clock ever! And kicking off a series of photos from the very interesting city of Leicester (since […]

Michael de Carle

Michael de Carle, 75 Hook Road, Surbiton, Borough of Kingston-upon-Thames, London KT6, 2916 • Beautiful yet sad coiffeur found via a tweet from Phil Day aka @HappyPlums. He also tweeted an image […]

Post Office (Manchester)

Post Office (Manchester), 42 Long Millgate, Manchester, 2010 • Ex-post office (there must be more closed-down than open ones these days) that appears to have also housed a coiffeur called […]

Luigi of Mayfair

Luigi of Mayfair, 55 High Street, Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex, 2005 • Luigi of Mayfair of Shoreham, complete with random word-spacing – the essence of 1950s gentility. Not surprisingly it’s long-gone; […]

Hair Talk

Hair Talk, 12 High Street, Rottingdean, East Sussex, 2004 • Seaside crimper with eyeless 1960s woman in its sign, and giant-haired 1970s woman in its window. It was beneath a faded […]

Amazon Hair

Amazon Hair, 92 Fowler Street, South Shields, South Tyneside, 2013 • A hair-cutter who’s cut out their window. Brilliant! It’s still there but now painted brown and white. Hope the eponymous online book-selling […]

Broadway Hair Stylist

Broadway Hair Stylist, 344 Muswell Hill Broadway, Muswell Hill, Borough of Haringey, London N10, 2016 • A proper early 1960s hair stylist’s fascia, complete with modernist mosaic – very rare these days. […]

RJ’s Barbers

RJ’s Barbers, 28 Hockley Street, Jewellery Quarter, Birmingam B18, 2005 • Traditional barber, back in 1 hour… and he’s still there, with good reviews on Google.

Grants

Grants, 32 Earlsdon Sreet, Coventry, Warwickshire, 2013 • Minimalistic plastic elegance for this 1960s-style hairdressing facade, still there in 2015.

Giovanni Hair Artiste, Cosmo Chicken Bar

Giovanni Hair Artiste, Cosmo Chicken Bar, 936, 934 Govan Road, Govan, Glasgow G51, Scotland, 2010 • Ambitious titles meet random plastic typography and very old coke branding. Still there in 2015, though it […]

Allen Carpets, Fisher Hairdressing, Screaming Skull

Allen Carpets, Fisher Hairdressing, Screaming Skull Tattoo & Body Piercing, […]

Lee’s Girls

Lee’s Girls, 15-17a Ranelagh Street, Liverpool L1, 2003 • Is that a play on Les Girls? Sci-fi-sounding procedures in Cooper Black Italic. Still there minus Cooper Black.

Hair Express, Faces

Hair Express, Faces, 40 Great Charlotte Street, Liverpool L1, 2003 • Forbidding temples of beauty. Hair Express still has a small wall sign present, but both it and Faces have gone, […]

Deeplex

Deeplex, 21 Deptford High Street, Borough of Lewisham, London SE8, 2002 • Nice name in giant Cooper Black Italic – a great font. It’s still there but with a duller logo.

Hansid

Hansid, 121 Deptford High Street, Borough of Lewisham, London SE8, 2002 • To me a pleasing name, though possibly once part of a greater whole. The unit has since been knocked down; […]

26 Bedfordbury (Peter’s Gents Hairdressers)

26 Bedfordbury (Peter’s Gents Hairdressers), 26 Bedfordbury, City of Westminster, […]

Crown & Glory

Crown & Glory, 10 Coldharbour Lane, Borough of Southwark, London SE5, 2015 • Upper case italic script, always a bold move. A holdout from the bland new signage infecting the […]

Indian’s Unisex Hair Salon

Indian’s Unisex Hair Salon, 82-84 Coldharbour Lane, Borough of Lambeth, SE5, 2015 • The scary weaponised hairdresser geezers date from an earlier sign, which Google’s magic wayback view shows was “a fine […]

Amaraché

Amaraché, 96 Coldharbour Lane, Borough of Lambeth, London SE5 • Some quite impressive wiring here. Note accented ‘e’ in different font. Google can’t translate the name, so I don’t know […]

Gents Hairdresser D. Burns.

Gents Hairdresser D. Burns., 76 Herbert Road, Plumstead, Borough of Greenwich, London SE18, 2004 • Barber embedded in an old tiled grocer’s, and you can see an even older sign […]

10/10 Ten Out of Ten Barber

10/10 Ten Out of Ten Barber, 7 Bell Street, City of Westminster, London NW1, 2003 • Eleven out of ten for the brilliant name. It’s still called that, but with a […]

Monet

Monet, 144 Balls Pond Road, Borough of Islington, London N1, 2002 • Crimping companion for Picasso and Renoir. Still looks fairly similar, but is now called The Parlour.

V for Hair

V for Hair, 51 West Hill Road, Bournemouth, Dorset, 2004 • A sign in window appraises us that the V stands for Veronica, which is a proper hairdresser name. It’s still […]

B&L. Stevens, Roger’s Gents Barbers

B&L. Stevens and Roger’s Gents Barbers, 51 and 51a Walton Street, Walton-on-the-Hill, Tadworth, Surrey, 2003 • Charming little bike shop from the days before they got all hipster (and still the […]

Kings & Queens

Kings & Queens, 300 Lewisham High Street, Borough of Lewisham, London SE13, 2010 • Not very palace-like. Now has a plain purple sign, with windows by Lycamobile.

The Modern Gents Continental Hair Stylist

The Modern Gents Continental Hair Stylist, 99 Upper Tooting Road, Tooting, Borough of Wandsworth, London SW17, 2006 • Once modern, now a charity shop.

Broadway Gents Hair Stylist

Broadway Gents Hair Stylist, 54 Broadway Market, Borough of Hackney, London E8, 2006 & 2012 • Another Eine production, next door to yesterday’s Broadway Wines. The fantastic old barber shop is still there, but […]

Touché Hair Productions

Touché Hair Productions, 2a High Street, Oakham, Rutland, 2015 • 1980s-style logo and matching plants for this ex-hairdresser, now with auction signs in the window.

Cosmo

Cosmo, 182 Caledonian Road, Borough of Islington, London N1, 2002 & 2012 • Ah, the static world of the traditional barber. I photographed this in 2002 (top) and 2012 (bottom) and […]

Dougal & Co

Dougal & Co, 260 Southwark Park Road, Borough of Southwark, London SE16, 2002 • Incongruous in a dull suburban street, a pointy oriental-style facade of a type more familiar on seaside parades. It later […]

Dad’s Unisex Hair Salon

Dad’s Unisex Hair Salon, 96 Hoxton Street, Borough of Hackney, London N1, 2006 • Maybe dad’s inside. Note unfortunate wire placement over the word “unisex”. It’s now something else, with […]

John J. Denton Ltd.

John J. Denton Ltd., 7 Williamson Square, Liverpool, 2003 • Another nice old shop from this racketty and now part-demolished square. Neat gold lettering centred on the door window says simply […]

Anne

Anne, 62 High Street, Waddesdon, Buckinghamshire, 2014 • More genteel net, albeit in a rather minimalist setting.  

J & Sons Unisex Hair Salon

J & Sons Unisex Hair Salon, 501 Cambridge Heath Road, Borough of Tower Hamlets, London E2, 2006 • Ambitious hand-painted lettering depicting a mysterious pater/materfamilias (it’s hard to tell which from […]

The Pleasant Gent’s Hairdresser

The Pleasant Gent’s Hairdresser, 33 Mount Pleasant Road, Tunbridge Wells, Kent, 2014 • More fading pleasantry in Tunbridge Wells.

Simone

Simone, 12 Whitchurch Parade, Whitchurch Lane, Edgware, Borough of Barnet, London HA8, 2004 • Ah, the sadness of suburbia. Google shows this as still there in 2015 – and indeed looking […]

Eric’s (Emm’s)

Eric’s (Emm’s), 107 Leppings Lane, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, 2010 • Strange mixture of old and new(ish) near Sheffield Wednesday’s football ground. Google street view shows a bunch of people sitting outside.

Adam & Eve

Adam & Eve, 90 Balls Pond Road, Borough of Islington, London N1, 2002 • Groovy curly type for a biblical name – note fig leaf. It was still there in 2008, […]

Clover Dairies Limited

Clover Dairies Limited, circa 201-203 Old Kent Road, Borough of Southwark, London SE1, 2002 • This attractive block next to yesterday’s Gin Palace was similarly demolished, to be replaced with bog-standard shop’n’flat […]

Kennington Car Hire

Kennington Car Hire, 56 Brixton Road, Borough of Lambeth, London SW9, 2001 • Another colourful business “under new management”. This appears to house a taxi firm, SSS Hair Salon, an afro-carribean […]

Paula Hair Fashions

Paula Hair Fashions, 93 Kirkgate, Leeds, West Yorkshire, 2014 • Superannuated sign for an earlier incarnation of this hairdresser.

Junk’N’Disorderly, Weavealicious

Junk’N’Disorderly, Weavealicious, 127,126 Frankwell, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, 2014 • Enough faux Tudor shopfronts, this one’s the real deal – although the shop names don’t quite live up to their location…

Boss

Boss, 4 Criterion Buildings, Portsmouth Road, Thames Ditton, Surrey, 2002 • Looked as if it was for the chop in 2002 but is still there, now with a new sign but retaining […]

C Master, Cumsers (Cutmasters)

CMaster, Cumsers (Cutmasters), 202-204 Merton High Street, Borough of Merton, London SW19, 2010 • Bizarre signage which almost looks like a rude joke. They’ve now got a “proper” sign but the […]

Valerie

Valerie, 85 Ealing Road, Brentford, Borough of Hounslow, London TW8, 2014 • Redolent of an Ealing film set, a classic net-curtained coiffeuse with bonus carriage arch.

Andrews, N. Kay’s

Andrews, N. Kay’s, 128a & 128 South Ealing Road, Borough of Ealing, London W5, 2014 • Back from Hull to London, and a chance to try out my super-duper new camera […]

Sweeny Todds

Sweeny Todds, 41 Station Road, Belmont, Sutton, Surrey, 2001 • Grisly attempt at Christmas decor from an unfortunately-named hairdresser paying homage to the “demon barber of Fleet Street” – albeit wrongly spelled. […]

Cameron Hair Fashions

Cameron Hair Fashions, 48 High Street, Caterham, Surrey, 2001 • A poignant sight: you just know this is one of the last Christmases for this lovingly ruched and curlicued old coiffeur’s, which […]

Shampoo

Shampoo, 10 Furzehill Parade, Shenley Road, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, 2010 • Borehamwood is in the British filmland belt near Elstree Studios, so I like to think this utilitarian old hairdresser’s sign is […]

Teignmouth Parade: Devine Creations, Videotalk

Devine Creations, Videotalk, 5 & 6 Teignmouth Parade, Perivale, Borough of […]

G.S. Williams

G.S. Williams,  JT Barbers, Devon House, 19 Bath Street, Frome, Somerset, 2008 • Fabulous tiled facade in a fascinating town – a pity half the original sign is obscured.

Hairdressr (White Moon Gents Hair Dressers)

White Moon Gents Hair Dressers, 3 Lanson House, Whitchurch Lane, Edgware, Borough of Barnet, London HA8, 2004 • Hairdressr is not, I feel, a clever anticipation of Tumblr et al; nor […]

Hair Care by New Figaro Formerly Ronald Saxon

Hair Care by New Figaro Formerly Ronald Saxon, 164 High Road, East Finchley, Borough of Barnet, London N2, 2003 • Nice logo, confused naming hierarchy. Later became Leptos (UK), a Cypriot […]

Mark of Mayfair

Mark of Mayfair, 7 Middle Street, Horsham, West Sussex, 2003 • That’s Mayfair of Horsham. Stylish 1960s slatted facade now redeveloped and unrecognisable as The Company Hairdressing.

Ann’s

Ann’s, 25a Shrubbery Road, Streatham, Borough of Lambeth, London SW16, 2002 • Genteel cameo logo for genteel-sounding Shrubbery Road. Now a book-keeping bureau called Figure Fact, but little changed.

Nicholas Johns

Nicholas Johns, 281 Southwark Park Road, Borough of Southwark, London, SE16, 2002 • Oddly beautiful, in all its fairy-lit ruined pinkness. Was reborn as the lurid-sounding Curry Den, with tiny mosaics […]

La Brosse Gentlemen’s Hairdresser

La Brosse Gentlemen’s Hairdresser, Institute Walk, East Grinstead, West Sussex, 2004 • Barbershop in a tree. What else do you expect in Institute Walk.  

Suzanne

Suzanne, 70 Brixton Road, Oval, Borough of Lambeth, London SW9, 2001 • It was a sad day when this 1950s dressing table-style hairdresser, with what looks like a jungle inside, became […]

Gents Hair Stylists

Gents Hair Stylists (Norms a peado), 20 Portland Drive, Merstham, Surrey, 2002 • Good job he’s not a paedo. By 2015 this still looked the same, minus awning and poorly-spelled graffiti.

Gents

Gents Hairdressing for Men, 10d East Street, Epsom, Surrey, 2002 • A dangerously generic title; I like the way it has to qualify its function as non-gents-toilet…

Dolla

Dolla Cosmetics & Hair Salon, 75 Tower Bridge Road, Bermondsey, Borough of Southwark, London SE1, 2002 • Nice old-fashioned typography, which later got replaced with a swirly purple logo.

Spendloads-Please

Spendloads-Please, 129 Jamaica Road, Borough of Southwark, London SE16, 2001 • There used to be two branches of this splendidly-named hairdresser, both now gone.

Chaminade Hair by Frank & Chris

Chaminade Hair by Frank & Chris, 40 High Street, Cheam, Surrey, 2002 • Named after composer Cécile Chaminade? Now plain grey Molyneux Hairdressing, but still has the nice M handle.

Adel Hair Fashions

Adel Hair Fashions, 204 Battersea Park Road, Borough of Wandsworth, London SW11, 2002 • One of the most beautiful facades I ever found. Unrecognisable now as Chesney’s luxury fireplace emporium.

Fanny Adams Unisex

Fanny Adams Unisex, 10 West Lane, Bermondsey, Borough of Southwark, London SE16, 2001 • They probably didn’t know that Fanny Adams was an 8-year-old whose murderer tore her into pieces. […]

Costa’s Barbers.

Costa’s Barbers., 165 Battersea High Street, Borough of Wandsworth, London SW11, 2002 • Infinitely preferable to a Costa coffee shop, this appeared to be undergoing refurbishment in 2012.

Dominic Hair Fashions

Dominic Hair Fashions, 1a Clifton Road, Littlehampton, West Sussex, 2003 • Once so proud, by 2012 even sadder than this: “Dominic” lettering torn off, blinds faded pale peach.