The day before the Kennington Bookshop was reborn as Vanilla Black Coffee and Books, another bookshop also opened just up the road. Finishing Touch, which flung wide its doors to the public on 1st November with a Day of the Dead celebration, is a bookshop, gallery and project space based in an old barbershop on Kennington Lane.
the opening event at Finishing Touch
It will remain until February 2016, at which point, presumably, the person who bought the property will start converting it into something less exciting. The barbershop which preceded it operated at the extreme end of ‘by appointment only’ (we never saw a single client in there for well over five years), but this new incarnation is playing host to the very welcoming Open Barbers, hairdressing for all genders and sexualities.
Finishing Touch will programme a series of events, screenings, exhibitions and performances, inviting artists to work with them in the spirit of the ‘salon’.
Run by the team behind Luminous Books, it supplies a well-curated selection of art and theory books and is perfect for a highbrow gift or two.
They even sell tasteful marbled paper to wrap it all in. Oh, and tote bags of course.
As a pop-up opening hours may change from week to week. You are advised to check their Facebook page for up to date opening times.
Address: 147 Kennington Lane, London SE11 4HQ
hello@finishingtouchshop.org.uk
openbarbers@gmail.com (Greygory – 07712090553 Felix – 07920832320)
The barber shop did have one customer at least in those five years – me. On the plus side there was no queue and the barber hardly said two words to me, the downside was that UK smoking restrictions on commercial premises didn’t seem to apply.
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I was also a customer of the old barber’s, mainly due to laziness (I live on White Hart Street). I only stopped going when I got fed up of the £5 surcharge he applied due to my “wiry hair”.
@Chris Harris amazing