Barbers in railway stations

[Amos]

My hair currently looks like it was cut by a barber working on the train .

 

[Class360/1]

I believe Frinton on Sea has a barbers

 

[Requeststop]

I can't recall a barbers at any of the Cornish stations or at Plymouth but this thread is one of the reasons I enjoy these forums. It's a great topic. Very enjoyable reading and replies. Well done to the OP.

 

[Ken H]

In the 1960-70s the barbers at Waterloo was accessed via the downstairs gent's loo, with large windows overlooking the urinals.
Not a place to take the wife
Very Victorian demeanour and setting with walls decoratively glaze-tiled, and the barbers in waistcoats and stiff collars

I seem to remember one in Leeds in a subway accessed from the gents. My thought now would be 'Why would you do that?' The station underpass had the gents in it. Niffed a bit! Maybe thats where the barber was.

 

[Amlag]

In the 70’s there was an old chap in the subway at Btol TM , he snipped my ear once !
..he had a little dog.

 

[stuu]

There was one in the main subway at Bank, near the Central Line escalators

 

[ChewChewTrain]

This one right outside the entrance to East Croydon is hard to miss.

 

[LRV3004]

That was my regular barbers when I worked in what was then Rail House (just across the car park). I often wondered if any potential customers were put off by the location on the half landing (well actually more than half way down) on the stairs down to the gents.

I also recall once using the barber at Waterloo when passing through the station.

I never used it myself (then again I was in my early teens and my mum’s friend who was a mobile hairdresser always cut my hair) but knew it was there, however it wasn’t exactly set in the most inviting of environments!!!

 

[Springs Branch]

My hair currently looks like it was cut by a barber working on the train.

I think in the 1930s when the LNER (the original one) was competing with the LMS and promoting the non-stop Flying Scotsman between London & Edinburgh, the train included an onboard barber's shop (and maybe ladies' hairdresser too). Presumably only for a quick tidy-up of sir's short-back-and-sides, rather than the full shave with cut-throat razor.

 

[davetheguard]

Marybone has a gents barbers.

It does, I've used it a few times myself. Back in the 90s it used to be run by a pair of Greek Cypriots; before opening at Marylebone, they'd run a barbers inside the gents' toilet at Paddington platform one. While the gents' was being refurbished, they'd temporarily set up shop at Waterloo station instead.

I believe one of them at least is now retired.

 

[Ash Bridge]

If this one counts, there is a womens and mens hair cutting & beauty salon within the Chester bound station building at Mouldsworth on the Mid Cheshire Line.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

I've never seen a barber's in a station, but when arriving late for trains I've had a few close shaves.

Groan !

 

[12LDA28C]

Marybone has a gents barbers.

The one at Marylebone has been there many years and gives a good haircut, I used it myself many times (when I had more hair!)

I don't know, it's a bit like motorway service facilities, isn't it - you have them there for convenience and that's about it. Nothing wrong with it, I just wouldn't have enormous expectations from it.

The only expectation I would have from a motorway service station is that I would have to pay considerably more (for the 'convenience') for exactly the same products or services I could get elsewhere, not that those products or services would be somehow substandard.

It does, I've used it a few times myself. Back in the 90s it used to be run by a pair of Greek Cypriots; before opening at Marylebone, they'd run a barbers inside the gents' toilet at Paddington platform one. While the gents' was being refurbished, they'd temporarily set up shop at Waterloo station instead.

I believe one of them at least is now retired.

Still run by Chris and his son John as far as I know, they've both been there as long as I can remember, although Paul (as in the establishment's name 'Paul & Chris Barbers') left some years ago.

 

[Trackman]

Manchester Victoria has a barbers on the concourse.

I've actually been today on work related business and never noticed it before, it's near the toilets.
I assume there was one decades ago at Man Vic.

Was just scanning through the comments to see if the one at Manchester Piccadilly had already been mentioned; I was going to post about it! Yes, I remember that one also - went with the rebuild and remodelling I think/assume.

I think it was middle left as you walked in.

I think in the 1930s when the LNER (the original one) was competing with the LMS and promoting the non-stop Flying Scotsman between London & Edinburgh, the train included an onboard barber's shop (and maybe ladies' hairdresser too). Presumably only for a quick tidy-up of sir's short-back-and-sides, rather than the full shave with cut-throat razor.

I've posted about this before. It was mainly to do with the ladies perfumery and hairdressers. I forget which name they gave it.

 

[Bletchleyite]

There was for a while one at the far end of Euston near the bogs. I found it quite useful.

 

[Jetglo]

I suppose this should really be on the international forum but this barber’s shop was pretty good!
(Bangkok Central Station 2019)

 

[faltskog36abba]

I've actually been today on work related business and never noticed it before, it's near the toilets.
I assume there was one decades ago at Man Vic.

I think it was middle left as you walked in.

I've posted about this before. It was mainly to do with the ladies perfumery and hairdressers. I forget which name they gave it.

I used to go the barber in Victoria, its where java is/was. The barber in Piccadilly was down the stairs at the side of john Menzie's/ Near platform 1-3.

 

[Leslie Fletcher]

That takes me back to when I was a kid. I remember Paddington having one but think Liverpool Street might have had one.

My mother had two uncles, brothers, who were both barbers with premises "in Liverpool Street" in the late 1950s though I don't know whether that meant the station or the roadway outside.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Used to be a very good barbers at Venice ....

 

[ijmad]

There's a barbers in the Western Arcade at London Bridge, as well as a cobbler.

Not within the barriers, but very much within the station. Proper old school!

 

[EbbwJunction1]

The one at Marylebone has been there many years and gives a good haircut, I used it myself many times (when I had more hair!)



The only expectation I would have from a motorway service station is that I would have to pay considerably more (for the 'convenience') for exactly the same products or services I could get elsewhere, not that those products or services would be somehow substandard.



Still run by Chris and his son John as far as I know, they've both been there as long as I can remember, although Paul (as in the establishment's name 'Paul & Chris Barbers') left some years ago.

I used it on Friday morning, and very good it was, too.

 

[LRV3004]

I think it was middle left as you walked in.

Yes, it was, although I recall it more for being on the right as you walked out!

 

[Mag_seven]

Marybone has a gents barbers.

Didn't Peter Parker the BR Board Chairman in the 70s frequent it?

 

[AlbertBeale]

Brighton has a brand new one that opened a few weeks ago in a shipping container on the concourse

https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/23119267.brighton-welcomes-new-shipping-container-barber-shop/

I'm sure there used to be an old-fashioned one generations ago on the stairs going down from the Brighton station concourse to the road under the front of the concourse - though I think that route out of the station itself closed many years back.

My recollection is that they were fairly common, at least in third-rail commuter land, in the shops adjacent to stations that the Southern built on its land. The shops were fairly small but this probably didn’t matter much as a one or two man barbershop would not need much floor space: a couple of basins along the wall, a couple of adjustable chairs, a bench to sit on while you waited, a table for a copy of the Evening News or Standard according to choice and a hat stand. The back would probably only be a small toilet and washbasin, and a storeroom with odd smocks, spares, boxes of lotions and ‘something for the weekend’, plus a small kettle shoved on a shelf.

Or indeed the Star, going back decades to when there were three evening papers in London...

 

[Turtle]

I'm sure there used to be an old-fashioned one generations ago on the stairs going down from the Brighton station concourse to the road under the front of the concourse - though I think that route out of the station itself closed many years back.



Or indeed the Star, going back decades to when there were three evening papers in London...

I remember using the old Brighton station barber shop down in the basement where the now disused exit was. In its twilight days there was an elderly chap working there who I suspect was in the early stages of Parkinsons. It was always a slightly alarming experience when he picked up the razor to finish off the session!
Also, does anyone recall the barber at London Bridge which opened after the 1970s renovation. The shop opened at 0:700 enabling commuters to get a haircut and still arrive at work on time. Unfortunately it disappeared when BR cutback on facilities at the terminus section of the station.

 

[Rescars]

If the station concourse felt a bit too public, another option might be to try the hotel, as many of the railway hotels contained barbers, at least when first opened. Oliver Carter's splendid book about British Railway Hotels includes an illustration of the hairdressers saloon in the Exchange Station Hotel in Liverpool, which shows the overhead line shaft used to drive mechanical hair brushes (a treat I have never experienced!). I don't know how long these barbers survived, but I have a dim recollection of a saloon (next to the gents of course) at the Great Western Royal at Paddington in the early 1970s.

 

[12LDA28C]

Didn't Peter Parker the BR Board Chairman in the 70s frequent it?

I don't believe it was there in the 1970s. Didn't it relocate from Paddington at the behest of Adrian Shooter?

 

[Bedwyn32]

I remember a barbershop at Reading Station in the late 90's early 2000's. Not cheap if i remember correctly.

 

[davetheguard]

Didn't Peter Parker the BR Board Chairman in the 70s frequent it?

I don't believe it was there in the 1970s. Didn't it relocate from Paddington at the behest of Adrian Shooter?

Peter Parker used to travel from Charlbury on the Cotswold Line, so could have used a barbers' at Paddington (or Marylebone if it existed then).

As I mentioned in an earlier post the barbers at Marylebone had certainly previously worked at Paddington. A connection with Adrian Shooter would be interesting.

 

[stantheman]

South Shields in BR days if my memory is correct anyone ?