Folk Guide To Bloomsbury – 4th Floor
Based on the top two floors of a 1930s industrial building on the edge of Clerkenwell, the Fourth Floor is a quietly brilliant hairdressing studio that likes doing things a bit differently. With no obvious shop front, the independent salon is accessed via an old goods lift, leading on to a bright, modern space with an incredible view of the city’s skyline. Owner Richard Stepney started the business back in 1990, when this part of town wasn’t quite the creative hub it is today. ‘Funnily enough I don’t think the overall area has changed that much, Richard explains when we visit him in the salon. ‘Bits of it have, like Clerkenwell, Shoreditch and Lambs Conduit Street but right around here it has still got that sort of no man’s land feel to it, which is nice. I think people still have to know about the Fourth Floor to come here.’
The people who do find their way up there (mostly by word-of-mouth) not only get a great cut and/or colour, but also get to enjoy the really rather lovely space, carefully put together by Richard over the years. There was never really a master plan to design it in a certain way. The original interior was created with the help from Tom Dixon (he used to have his studio on the ground floor) who provided most of the mirrors, custom shelving and the lighting design. The place then just changed organically over the years, with Richard regularly adding new pieces of art by the likes of Peter Liversidge and Stephanie Bergman, who also happen to be clients. ‘I can’t wait for a new piece of work I’m getting from a brilliant artist called Sophie Smallhorn, who is so clever with colour. She’s done this installation with thousands of coloured discs that will hang from the ceiling and I know that is something people will really enjoy and pick up on. For me that’s more important than redesigning or revamping the whole room.’
Richard started hairdressing straight from school. It was that classic thing of growing up just outside of London but feeling quite out of it at the same time. ‘Back then hairdressing was one of the things you could do to get involved in a creative business,’ he says. ‘So I came to London and started an apprenticeship at Vidal Sassoon. They had this big salon on Bond Street and that was almost entirely the appeal. It was more about being in town and being somewhere like that. That was in 1976. I know I sound like an old man but it was a great time, because in London that was Punk and hairdressing at that time was really part of it.’
After Sassoon and a couple of shared ventures in basements of shops, Richard got the opportunity to set up his own salon when he found the current space on Northington Street. The building, built in 1934, was originally a factory that made cinema projectors. Remnants of a once fully functioning screening room can apparently still be found in the basement and a corner of the salon still has the old tiles from when it was used as a spray room. ‘It’s that type of 1930s architecture that there’s not that much of and people really like it,’ Richard explains. ‘I really like it. It’s an old building with crumbling bits and bits that are worn out. There are lots of imperfections but for me that means it’s quite a welcoming place at the same time. I think if something is too perfect, it’s kind of intimidating. None of us have perfect homes and shiny shoes all the time. This is more human.’
The Fourth Floor isn’t the kind of place that would ever advertise or shout about its existence. It was all pretty much built up on word-of-mouth recommendations, which to this day is still the main way to get new clients. It suits Richard but he explains: ‘It does mean that when new stylists come here, it takes a lot longer to establish themselves. But once you do, you get the right type of people in who are going to like what we do and are therefore much more likely to come back.’ It also means that most of the staff (a small team of eight hairdressers with a couple of assistants) have all been there for a long time. ‘To have people stay, to have that stability is really important to me, it creates a much more relaxed environment. Which is nice for my clients as well.’
As if running the day-to-day business of the salon isn’t already enough, Richard likes to have his projects on the side. ‘It’s great working in a building like this and having to work on it and think about it,’ he says. ‘But having been here all this time, it’s important to have other things as well.’ About ten years ago he developed a bespoke line of hair products in close relationship with Italian chemist Corpolibero, who use centuries-old grooming formulas originally developed by Italian monks. ‘That whole process of finding formulas and working with a chemist all the way through to developing the packaging, was really fantastic. But it’s a long old process and I was just really lucky to find someone who was happy to do that with me, for such a relatively small project.’
To mark the 20-year anniversary of the salon, Richard decided to publish a clothbound book as a thank you for all his loyal customers (‘It was either that or a party. And I really didn’t want to have a party’). The book was a collaboration with his favourite design company North and featured interviews, designs and recipes from regular clients such as Jon Snow, Tom Dixon and Nigel Slater. ‘The nice thing about a book is that it goes on a shelf and isn’t in anyone’s way, you don’t throw it away. I just love that it is out there and people find it, pick it up and have a flick through.’
The latest project has been the Fourth Floor Corner Shop. For two months at the end of last year, the reception area of the salon was transformed into a temporarily shop showcasing a selection of goods from local businesses like Folk, Darkroom and Timothy Everest. The idea was to be part of the local community a bit more and getting to know the people behind other independent stores in the area and especially on Lambs Conduit Street. ‘The result was brilliant,’ Richard says. ‘I was thrilled to bits with it. The shop made it possible for people to come up and have a little look and see what we’re all about. But at the same time it was amazing how many of my customers said how they’d always meant to go to these places but never got round to it even though it’s right around the corner.’
So pleased with the result, Richard has now decided to make it a recurring event. ‘I like the idea of it developing and for it not to be the same thing every year. So the first one was all about the local community and for next time I’d like to do it slightly more curated and maybe commission more things from individuals. But I still have to think of a theme for this year, I haven’t got one yet!
4 Northington Street, WC1N 2JG, 02074056011, www.4thfloor.co.uk
