Maiden Lane Barber Shop With Whisky and Cut-Throat Shaves: Ruffians Covent Garden

Ruffians Covent Garden, at 27 Maiden Lane, London WC2E 7JS, has been cutting hair since 2013, when the Edinburgh brand chose this narrow lane off the Strand for its first London outpost. Doors open at 10am every day, closing at 7pm on weekdays and 6pm at weekends, and a signature haircut starts from £60. Anyone typing barber shop near me between Charing Cross and the Piazza will find nine stations here, a fireplace and a bar pouring coffee or whisky.

The Ruffians story starts in Edinburgh in 2012, when one man decided the city's crowded barbering scene still lacked a shop built around a slower, more tailored service with a relaxed community feel. The brand's own account says he soon found he was not alone. Within a year the company had come south, and the Maiden Lane shop became its London flagship, a role it still holds over the newer Shoreditch and Marylebone branches.

Since then Ruffians has collected a record three British Barbershop of the Year awards, according to its about page, and launched a range of hair and beard products that its barbers tested before release. Those tubs and bottles are what you see first on walking in, because a small retail counter fills the front of the shop. Behind it the room opens out into two long communal cutting desks shared across nine stations.

Jake, now manager and senior barber, has worked these chairs since the doors opened in 2013 and doubles as one of the company's main educators, training new recruits in hair, beards and shaves. If you have an awkward crown, very curly hair or no clear idea of what you want, his name is the safest one to pick in the online diary, since the shop describes him as an expert across all hair types.

Michael, a senior barber who moved to London in 2019, also works as a session stylist, and his cuts have appeared in magazines and on billboards. The shop itself warns that his loyal regulars leave few free slots, so plan days ahead rather than hours. Francesco, winner of an Innovative Barbering award in 2024, has worked in salons and barbershops across Italy and the UK and writes music when he is off the floor.

The rest of the bench has its own flavour. James, a former educator, has cut hair from the South West to Australia and will happily talk football, cider and Bristol. Hannah brings more than ten years in the creative industry and suits anyone wanting to change direction. Michele, whom the shop calls its prince of punk, is a skateboarder who takes on alternative cuts as readily as a classic flow.

The Ruffians Haircut, from £60 for 45 minutes, is the default booking and covers a consultation, a wash, the cut and a styled finish, with complimentary drinks and advice on looking after the style at home. The menu aims it at short to mid-length hair that has been cut within the last three months, so it works best as an upkeep appointment rather than a reinvention.

Anyone going from long to short, asking for heavy layering, or returning after more than three months should book The Re-style Haircut instead, from £75 for 60 minutes. The Ruffians menu says so itself, and booking the cheaper slot for a full transformation only squeezes your barber for time. That extra quarter hour pays for a longer consultation about what will realistically suit your hair and routine.

Beards get two options. The Express Beard Tidy runs 15 minutes from £20 and suits short beards between full services, while the Extended Beard Tidy, 30 minutes from £46, adds reshaping and optional hot towel and razor work. Skip the express version if your beard has gone months untouched, because a quarter hour of clippers cannot rebuild a lost shape, and the longer slot is designed for exactly that job.

The Cut-Throat Razor Shave is the one service worth crossing London for. It lasts 45 minutes, costs from £68, and opens with a skin consultation, a facial scrub and a hot towel before two passes of the razor. A cold towel and a moisturising treatment close it out. Booking it on the same morning as a haircut makes sense before a wedding or interview, provided you reserve both slots together online.

Waiting here is not a plastic-chair affair. A fireplace sits in the waiting area, lit through the winter months and flanked by rustic farmhouse wingback chairs, and across from it stands a coffee-cum-whisky bar. The coffee is Darwoods speciality coffee, and the group bar list runs to MOTH canned cocktails such as an Old Fashioned and a Margarita, Toast lagers brewed with surplus bread, Nc'nean organic Scotch whisky, Brugal 1888 rum and Roku gin.

Ruffians takes appointments through its own online booking system, where you pick the Covent Garden location, the service, the barber and a time. Booking by name matters more here than at most chains, because each barber's diary fills at a different pace, and Michael's in particular. Mondays through Fridays give you the longest day, from 10am until 7pm, so after-work cuts are possible until the last slot.

Weekends shut an hour earlier, at 6pm on both Saturday and Sunday, which tightens the diary just as theatre-goers and shoppers flood Covent Garden. Do not count on a Saturday afternoon cut without booking days ahead. Bring a photo if you have a style in mind, since the Ruffians FAQ actively encourages it and says it helps the barber judge whether the look will work with your hair type and face shape.

When the Maiden Lane diary is full, Murdock London on Monmouth Street in Seven Dials is the obvious plan B, a ten-minute walk north past the Piazza. Its Covent Garden barbershop has five barber's chairs, sells its own shave and beard care range and takes bookings online too. Switching the Ruffians diary to the Shoreditch or Marylebone branch is the other quick fix.

Rules sits a few doors along Maiden Lane and claims to be London's oldest restaurant, founded as an oyster bar by Thomas Rule in 1798. Its game-heavy menu, red and dark-wood dining room and walls of caricatures have hosted Charles Dickens and Charlie Chaplin. In October 2026 its owner gave the building to the National Trust, while the restaurant carries on as a tenant, and the dining room is shut on Mondays.

The street has older barbering roots than Ruffians. J. M. W. Turner was born on Maiden Lane in 1775 above his father's barber shop, a few steps from Corpus Christi, the Roman Catholic church that also stands on the lane. Walk east to Southampton Street and turn north, and within two minutes you reach the Covent Garden Piazza with its market building and street performers. Heading west instead brings you to Bedford Street and, beyond it, the theatres around Chandos Place and St Martin's Lane.

Ruffians Covent Garden is at 27 Maiden Lane, London WC2E 7JS, in the City of Westminster. Call 020 7240 8180 or email coventgarden@ruffians.co.uk. Hours run 10am to 7pm Monday to Friday and 10am to 6pm on Saturday and Sunday. Every service, from haircuts and beard tidies to cut-throat shaves, begins with a full consultation, and appointments are made online through the Ruffians booking page.

Charing Cross, for the Northern and Bakerloo lines and mainline trains, is about a five-minute walk south-west via Bedford Street and the Strand. Covent Garden station on the Piccadilly line is a similar five minutes north via James Street. Leicester Square, on the Northern and Piccadilly lines, takes closer to eight minutes. Buses along the Strand beat driving into this congestion-charge zone.