Open from 10.00am to 7.00pm Monday to Saturday is Red Hot Nails, a bright and clean Nailcare and Spa business. It is between Hair 2 Day and the Walthamstove Cafe, in the building which used to belong to the Salvation Army, who bought it in 1891.
This building was designed by W. Gilbee Scott, an architect who would work for whatever brand of Christianity paid (he also restored All Saints w/St Michael in Edmonton at around the same time). Although the old citadel is of some historical interest, is not as interesting to me as what it replaced, a set of boxing booths run by a gentleman called Alf Ball. This was a famous site in its day where professionals would take on amateurs in the ring for prizes. Exotic attempts to bring in the crowds even once included showing an aged lion fitted with boxing gloves on its front paws being jabbed by a fighter who entered its cage in an effort to make it roar for the crowd.
Now the gloves are off and it is a nail bar. Like Excel World, they are not afraid to make clear exactly what the services are that they offer and they clearly indicate their prices before customers enter. 'Pink and white' nails cost thirty pounds, Take Off and overlay, twenty-eight.
As well as the nailcare, Red Hot Nails take on waxing jobs, offering a Brazilian for fifteen pounds and a Hollywood for twenty. A 'full leg' wax costs twenty pounds. I wonder if that is by the leg or for a pair?
Tel 0208 520 9285
[Updated 21 February 2009]