Shop FAQ

Q: When was the company started?
A: It dates back to 1770 but the shop in waterfront for almost 15 years

Q: Is there any more branches?
A: No this is the only one in the world

Q: Why we don't shave with cut throats?
A: Because they were banned in the world, apart from apparently Turkey, who will take no notice whatsoever and the reason is because you can’t put the same blade on two different men. So if Liberace came in for a shave, followed by Freddy Mercury, and you were next, I think you might have a very serious problem. That is the reason that we don’t not use cut throats. And a cut throat was popular over 200 years ago, and a 100 years later somebody invented a motor car and a man ran in front of the car and would wave a flag to say that a car is coming. Cut throats date all the way back to the Egyptian times and we don’t use it because of aids, sensitive skin etc.

Q: Why do our colognes contain no alcohol?
A: Because they are 6 times stronger than anything you can buy in a shop, which contain alcohol. NOT GOOD FOR THE SKIN. Our colognes are similar to the pure perfumes that ladies used to buy in minute quantities at great cost and they are for any skin type as nothing will burn the skin, obviously the fragrance will last 12 – 14 hours and this is unlike the perfumes made with alcohol that last and hour or two so our colognes are wonderful.

Q: Why don't we make bookings?
A: We never make booking because the old way of barber shops people came in, sat down and waited their turn. We initially tried, 16 years ago in the waterfront, to take bookings, like a ladies hairdressers. The first booking we took was a disaster. The client booked for 11:00, turned up at 12:15, apologizing profusely that the traffic jam in the waterfront had held him up for over an hour in the mean time we sat with a barber and an empty chair waiting for the client to eventually arrive. We do not take bookings.

Q: When are our busy times?
A: All the time. It is the most difficult thing to know exactly when the busy time will be there. We could say the weekend, Saturday and Sunday, but sometimes we have a convention of people arriving from an over-seas country, or Johannesburg or Pretoria and they would keep us very busy for a good half of the day to get everybody ready so it’s hard to say exactly when will be the busiest time or the quietest time.

Q: Why is shaving with a brush better than using your hands?
A: A man normally does not like to use the bathroom first, he would rather lay in bed and itch and scratch the anatomy and then blurry eyed he would spray some foam (95% aqua , WATER) or gel (97% aqua, WATER) and he would spray this onto those hands and slap them on his face and wonder where the spots, imperfects and redness in the skin comes from. The only thing in the barber shop is the shaving brush that touches the customers face, NOT THE HANDS. The life of a shaving brush, looked after correctly, is 40 years or more.

Q: Why we don't use shaving foam?
A: Because we use real things that are good for the skin, not nearly 100% water, but the correct things for the skin, special oils and a magnificent shaving soap that if a customer decides to shave every day, it will last him 3 – 3 and a half years and a cost of less than R 500.00 for 3 years shaving with the correct things for the skin.

Q: Was this store ever in London?
A: No, as manufacturers and makers of shaving brushes since 1770, over 246 years ago, we have proudly made shaving hair, bath, nail, cosmetic and every conceivable shaving brush imaginable for the large stores in the ST. James and West end area of London. These we obviously put the names of these famous stores on as branding and they sell them for extremely high prices, but they do not make them. THE CITY OF LONDON 18TH CENTURY BRUSHMAKERS have provided the most famous stores who sell to gentry and nobility for extremely high prices and you can purchase the selfsame goods in our store (without the famous brand names on of course) at a reasonable figure of money for a beautifully handmade item

We are proud to make mention that we have supplied some of the most famous persons in the world

QUESTIONS FREQUENTLY ASKED AND ANSWERED BY BOB LANSDOWNE