Trafalgar Square Barber Shop Open Sundays Since 1896: Pall Mall Barbers

Pall Mall Barbers has cut hair at 27 Whitcomb Street, a few steps off Trafalgar Square, since 1896, and it opens on Sunday too, from 10am to 5pm. A Quality Haircut costs £37.97 and a Luxury Wet Shave £45. Walk-ins are welcome at any time, so it is a dependable barber shop near me answer for anyone staying around Charing Cross.

The shop opened in 1896 as the Pall Mall Toilet Saloon, at the same number on Whitcomb Street, a lane running north from Pall Mall East toward Leicester Square. The company only learned its own early name when an old business card for the Toilet Saloon turned up during a renovation of the shop. That card, rather than family legend, is the anchor of the 1896 date the brand uses everywhere.

Richard Marshall bought the original shop from its previous family owners in 2005, when he was 28, and the company now styles him founder and CEO. He has since added branches at Bishopsgate, at Heathrow and in New York, and he was made an MBE in the King's New Year Honours 2026. In September 2026 the business marked 130 years with a feature in the London Evening Standard.

The menu is short and priced to the penny. A Quality Haircut takes 30 minutes for £37.97, and a Premium Haircut runs 45 minutes for £47.97. A Skin Fade with Haircut costs £43, and a clippers-only cut is £17 on the booking page. Barbers here are independent operators who set their own schedules within the shop, so the menu prices are the published standard rather than a fixed rule.

The Luxury Wet Shave is the service to book if you have never had one. For £45 and 45 minutes, the barber works with hot towels, the house's award-winning shave products and a straight edge razor. Pairing it with a Premium Haircut costs £92.97 for 75 minutes. A Quality Beard Trim costs £18, a Head Shave £30, and a Hot Towel on its own £15.

Skip the stand-alone Hot Towel. At £15 for 15 minutes it is pleasant, but the same towels come as part of the £45 shave, which adds the razor work that justifies the trip. If budget is the issue, a Quality Beard Trim at £18 keeps a beard tidy, and you can come back for the full shave on a day with more time.

The shop's own line is that walk-ins are welcome anytime, but booked customers come first, so a Saturday walk-in can mean a wait. Online booking runs through Fresha, where the Trafalgar Square shop carries more than 2,500 reviews. Pick a named barber on Fresha if you have a favourite, since each runs their own diary.

Three rules come from the FAQ page. Cancel or reschedule at least two hours ahead, or you may be charged half the standard service price. Arrive more than five minutes late and the barber may move your slot. Children are cut from the age of 10 upward, which makes this a practical stop for a father and son visiting the National Gallery for the day. Late arrivals are the most common snag on busy days, so leave margin if you are coming from a matinee or a museum queue.

The shop's best-known customer visit was not about hair at all. Prince William came to the London barbers with Richard Marshall to talk about men's mental health as part of the Heads Together campaign, and the location page still says he graced the barber chairs. For a shop that has spent 130 years talking to men in a chair, the subject fitted the room.

Its location between the Haymarket theatres, the Pall Mall offices and the National Gallery means a weekday queue can hold a West End usher, a civil servant and a visitor who came for the 1896 story. Products for sale in-store include matte clays, pomades, sea salt sprays and beard care, all from the house Cleanse, Treat and Style range. Everyone sits in the same chairs, and the shelves by the mirrors are where most first-timers pick up a tin of clay or pomade to copy the finish at home.

The shop names four nearby Tube stations: Charing Cross, Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Square and Embankment. From Charing Cross, cross Trafalgar Square past the National Gallery steps and turn up Whitcomb Street beside the Sainsbury Wing. From Leicester Square, walk to the south-west corner of the square and follow Whitcomb Street south toward Trafalgar Square. The walk from Charing Cross takes only a few minutes, and the Embankment and Piccadilly Circus stations are not much further, so the shop works as a stop between a gallery visit and a show. Whitcomb Street is narrow and easy to overshoot, so watch the house numbers once you leave the square.

North of the shop, the Prince Charles Cinema on Leicester Place shows repertory films and sing-along screenings, and its cheap member tickets make it a classic Soho evening after a cut. A few minutes further, Chinatown's Gerrard Street is ready for a late lunch. The cinema sits on the far side of Leicester Square from the shop, so the walk takes you past the square's half-price theatre ticket booth, handy if a fresh cut has put you in the mood for an evening show.

Head south instead, cross Trafalgar Square and walk down Villiers Street toward the river, where Gordon's Wine Bar keeps its candlelit vaults under the old arches. From there the Embankment Gardens and the Thames path are a short stroll, a good place to finish a Sunday afternoon after the shop closes at 5pm. Villiers Street itself runs down the side of Charing Cross station, which makes this loop an easy way to end the day at a train or Tube platform.

Address: 27 Whitcomb Street, London WC2H 7EP. Hours: Monday to Friday 9am to 7pm, Saturday 9am to 6pm, Sunday 10am to 5pm. Quality Haircut £37.97, Skin Fade with Haircut £43, Luxury Wet Shave £45. Book on Fresha or walk in. Cancellations need two hours' notice.

If the Whitcomb Street chairs are full on a weekday, the company's Bishopsgate branch serves the City side of town, though it is a Tube ride away rather than a walk. On a busy Saturday, booking the morning before is the surest way to avoid a long wait behind customers with appointments. Rain is no reason to cancel: the shop is a short dash from the Charing Cross station exits, and the National Gallery across the square is free to wander while you wait for a slot to open.