Barber Peter fears he faces final cut
After tending Black Country gents' hair for nearly 50 years a barber fears he may have to hang up his scissors for good.
Peter Wilkes blames town centre redevelopment and rising parking charges for a sharp drop in trade.
From the outside his salon, Tobias barbers, in Bridge Street, Walsall, looks like any other but inside, it reflects an era when the barber shop was at the heart of the community.
The Edwardian-style wooden interior has antique shaving mugs from his collection of 400 lining the walls of the shop – named after Sweeney Todd's hero apprentice who helped expose the barber's murderous ways. An old grandfather clock takes pride of place but the 66-year-old, who offered cut-throat shaves until health and safety legislation made it increasingly difficult, fears he may soon be forced out of the shop he opened in 1990.
Mr Wilkes successfully ran Peter Wilkes Hairdressing, Weston Street, Caldmore from 1968-2008 and a branch in George Street from 1980 to 1999.
But times have changed. Mr Wilkes, Walsall Rotary Club president, said: "We are down well over £1,000 a week compared to how we were three or four years ago. We had scaffolding up for a long time while the building above the shop was converted into flats. Then the new Walsall ring road development made it more difficult to get into the town.
"Now they are making it harder to park in the town, what with increased wardens on the streets and higher charges."
Mr Wilkes, of Windsor Street, Caldmore, called for Walsall Council to consult more with businesses in the town.
He went into the trade straight from school.
"I've got one customer who has been coming to me for 40 years and now brings his grandsons too, and another who comes all the way back from Liverpool to have his hair cut here," he said.
"When I first started in hairdressing, it was all what the kids today would call a grade one-short back and sides for everyone," he said. "Very few people had trims and most people had a haircut once a fortnight. We used to do proper neck shaves and keep them looking really sharp.
"That's real barbering. It's really wonderful to do. If it all goes bust tomorrow it will break my heart, but they can't take away the fact I've done 40 good years," he said. "Old barbers never die."
