BARBER’S BIRTHDAY
Need a haircut? Tristan Cork knows a little place in Knowle that’s been in business for 100 years
A Knowle barber shop established at the end of the Great War is going strong for its centenary
ABARBER shop in south Bristol is offering free haircuts for a whole day – to mark an astonishing 100 years in existence.
It is simply called The Barber Shop, and has occupied the same premises in Knowle since September 1919.
Back then, Bristol was still a city reeling from the Great War, but a Mr Spiller took on number 11, Redcatch Road, and welcomed his first customers with a swish of the gown and a sharpening of the scissors.
Hairstyles, fashions, facial hair and fringes have changed radically over the years, but pretty much every weekday and Saturday since then, the men and boys of Knowle have taken their seats in the invisible first-come-first-served queue and asked to be less scruffy than they were when they came in.
For the past 20 years, since February 1999, the little barber shop just off the Wells Road in the heart of Knowle has been run by Pedro Nunez.
He said he sees himself as a custodian of the barber’s, and is looking to the first man he took on as an apprentice just six months in back in 1999, Tom Pinson, to take on the mantle when he retires.
Tom has been at his side cutting hair ever since, and now with a team of four, as long as the hair on the heads of the men of Knowle keeps growing, they will keep cutting it.
Pedro said they’ve been looking ahead to the centenary ever since one of their customers came in with a bit of a find.
“His grandfather was Mr Spiller, and said he found the first headed paper with the date on from the original barber’s that was here in 1919. It’s framed now up on the wall,” said Pedro.
“I’ve had 20 years here, but it’s been here 100 years this month. It does feel very special, like we are continuing a tradition, we’re just the custodians of this place, really,” he added.
Even over the 20 years Pedro and Tom have been asking customers their holiday plans, styles have changed, swinging like pendulums between shaved and long, styled and loose.
“The beard has taken over in recent years, there’s a lot of grooming going on now,” said Pedro.
“Even since we have been here, we went through the David Beckham Years, which was clipper cuts all over, that was the era of easy money, really,” he laughed.
“Then it went longer, and then beards, and short back and sides came back, and now, really, anything goes, absolutely anything,” he added.
The Barber Shop is something of a Knowle institution. “When we started, it was a traditional custom, really, lots of older people, but now the grandfathers bring their sons and grandsons in, and younger people are coming in now,” he added.
“We are going to offer free haircuts for one day, all day, on September 28 – it’s our way of saying thank you to our regulars and the people of Knowle too, for all these years,” he added.