A Barber Shop Since Trafalgar Day: Truefitt & Hill, St James's, London

Truefitt & Hill cuts, shaves and manicures at 71 St James's Street, London SW1A 1PH, where a Haircut and Shampoo costs £60 and takes 30 minutes. The firm traces itself to a wigmaker's salon opened in 1805, and in 2000 Guinness World Records named it the oldest barbering business in the world. The pedigree draws visitors, but this barber shop runs on plainer things: Master Barbers, Green Park station nearby and six opening days a week.

The official history begins on 21st October 1805, the day of the Battle of Trafalgar, when Francis William Truefitt opened a small gentlemen's salon on Cross Lane, Long Acre. He styled himself Court Wigmaker, Court Hair Cutter and Court Head Dresser, worked beside his brother Peter and mixed his own colognes and pomades in the same rooms. He was soon appointed Wigmaker to George III, and Wikipedia records that the firm's first Royal Warrant came from that king.

The Hill half of the name came later. Peter's line became H.P. Truefitt Ltd, named for his son Henry Paul, and moved to New Bond Street in 1826. In 1935 that company merged with Edwin Hill, forming Truefitt & Hill on Old Bond Street. The salon stayed open through the Blitz, briefly moving to Burlington Gardens after bomb damage, and the London shop settled at 71 St James's Street in 1994.

The client roll is part of the house lore. The firm says Winston Churchill sat in Truefitt's chairs for decades, and when he died in January 1965 the shop closed for the day, the only time it has shut its doors for a single customer. Oscar Wilde and Lord Byron appear on the same list, and Wikipedia notes that up until 2021 the company held a Royal Warrant by appointment to Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

Appointments run the day here. Nearly every treatment on the menu is booked in a 30-minute block, so a cut followed by a wet shave fills an hour.

Doors open at 8:30 am Monday through Saturday, which makes the first weekday slot the easiest way to fit a cut around a working day. Saturday closes earlier, at 5 pm, and the shop is shut on Sundays and public holidays, so a late Saturday plan leaves the least room for error. Anyone booking colour or tinting must have a patch test at least 24 hours before the appointment, which rules out a same-day decision.

One old custom survives, according to a 2016 British Heritage Travel profile: the barber does not speak unless spoken to. For anyone used to chatty high-street shops, that quiet is the point. The same piece reported that Truefitt's did not make house calls, with the Duke of Edinburgh the single exception, so nearly every client, titled or not, has had to come to St James's Street.

The Haircut and Shampoo is the core service at £60. A Master Barber cuts and styles using the house hair care range, with a shampoo, a conditioner and, if wanted, an invigorating scalp friction at the end. The menu bills it as the safest hands in St. James's, a confident line for a 30-minute appointment, though a Guinness title gives the boast some cover. The £120 Scalp Massage, Shampoo & Cut adds hot towel therapy and an essential oil treatment first.

The Traditional Hot Towel Wet Shave also costs £60. New clients begin with a consultation on their shaving routine, then Pre-Shave Oil, a hot towel, a shaving cream picked from the shop's own range and the shave itself, finished with aftershave balm and a choice of cologne. The Head Shave, again £60, passes over the scalp twice with a straight razor before a hot towel and a cold towel close the treatment.

The packages are where the bill climbs. The Grooming Experience at £165 bundles the Haircut and Shampoo, the hot towel wet shave and a Manicure into 60 minutes, starting with a consultation on hair and shaving habits. The Ultimate Grooming Experience at £225 adds a Facial Treatment, a skincare consultation and an extra half hour, for 90 minutes in total. Both suit a wedding morning or a first visit you want to remember properly.

Skip the Ultimate package if all you need is a tidy neckline before a meeting, because the £60 cut covers that in 30 minutes. It also helps to know the bundles carry no saving: the cut, the shave, the £45 Manicure and the £60 Facial Treatment add up to exactly £225 when booked one by one. The package earns its place only when you want all four done back to back without rebooking.

Time Out's review describes sleek wood panelling and plush leather chairs, and the walls hold the archive: British Heritage Travel saw ancient framed royal warrants, a coat of arms taken from a client's coach and a case holding a set of seven straight razors, one for each day of the week. It also described a pomade pot labelled for H.P. Truefitt Ltd that was recovered from the wreck of the Titanic, and a wood-panelled back room with five seats, one of them screened behind a curtain.

As for who sits here now, the firm keeps current clients private, though Ape to Gentleman says they span stage, screen, politics and sport, and Air Transat reported a renaissance among younger male clientele. Staff loyalty runs just as deep: the official history says some barbers have served over 60 years, and the six most senior barbers together pass 350 years of combined service at Truefitt's.

Truefitt's own history notes that the lower stretch of St James's Street holds eight traditional outlets within a hundred paces, with a combined trading history past 1,700 years among wine merchants, hatters, boot makers, gunsmiths and tobacconists. Two are easy to fold into a stroll: Lock & Co. Hatters, making hats since 1676 behind a green door on St James's Street and open from 9:30 am without appointments, and the wine merchant Berry Bros. & Rudd on the same street.

If Truefitt's book is full, Geo. F. Trumper runs its own traditional barbershop on Duke of York Street in St James's, open 9 am to 5:30 pm on weekdays and 9 am to 5 pm on Saturday. The other fix is to aim for the 8:30 am opening on a weekday, half an hour before Trumper's door opens.

The barbershop sits at 71 St James's Street, London SW1A 1PH, and the official site names Green Park as the nearest tube station. Opening hours as listed are Monday to Friday 8:30 am to 5:30 pm, Saturday 8:30 am to 5 pm, and closed on Sunday and public holidays. Pairing the £60 cut with the £60 hot towel shave makes a one-hour, £120 first visit.

Online booking runs through Booksy from the Book Now button on the official site. Book colour at least a day ahead for the patch test, and allow a full 90 minutes if you choose the £225 Ultimate Grooming Experience.