Black Barbershops in Focus is a research project by Dr Karis Campion that explores how black-owned barbershops can function as community assets in the South London Borough of Lambeth. The research uses ethnographic methods, including art and photography, to examine how these everyday places can nourish and sustain black urban life.
‘The West Indian barber shops, in particular, are community centres, where West Indian newspapers can be read, and where all the latest news can be heard: information about new arrivals; about possible vacancies in jobs or houses; rumours of new chances of employment or threats to unemployment, announcements of dances and meetings.’
(Excerpt from ‘London’s Newcomers’ by Sociologist Ruth Glass, 1960, p. 202)