The Gents'' Barbers In Pinner High Street

A Memory of Pinner.

This 1955 view of Pinner High Street brings back my memories of haircuts after school. About half way "up" the High Street on the right is a gents' barbers. During my schooldays at Pinner Grammar School from 1956 to 1963 I would stop at the barbers' shop every two weeks (!) on my way home. If I cycled furiously I could get to Pinner before the 209 bus and therefore beat the queue. If my distant memory serves me accurately I paid 10d when I began in the first form in 1956. My mother would give me a shilling with very strict instructions that I was to tell the barber to keep the change - this I think was due to her own years as a ladies' hairdresser in the 1930s and 1940s when she relied on tips. The Pinner barbers obviously did not like cutting childrens' hair as they allowed any adults to go straight to the front of the queue. Sometimes I would wait nearly an hour if I was really unlucky and the 209 bus beat me to Pinner, plus any adults who walked in at 5pm and were cut before me! And of course those men who popped in to buy those essentials for "the weekend" which made the barbers stop work and rush to their till at the front of the shop. I was too honest - I should have withheld the 2d tip to show how dissatisfied I was with my long wait!