Barber shop uses classical music to keep rowdy schoolchildren away

Wednesday October 13, 2010

by DAN CARRIER

THE frenetic buzzing of an electronic mosquito alarm has long been the weapon of choice for shop keepers fed up with young people loitering outside their premises.

But now a barber whose trendy hair salon is sandwiched between Haverstock school and a chicken and chips take away in Chalk Farm has hit on a friendlier way of moving gossiping teenagers away from his front door. Instead of using a high pitched buzz that only the young can detect, hairdresser Stavros Konstantinou now pumps out the violin concertos of German composer Brahms - and has found the rapid-fire fret work of a chamber orchestra a better deterrent.

Mr  Konstantinou, who has run Oskar Pink on Haverstock Hill for three years, said his business was suffering by unruly young people loitering outside his shop front – until classical music stepped in.
He said: “It can be very intimidating for customers and quite intimidating for us to have gangs of people hanging around outside, smoking, swearing and dropping littler.
“I'd approached the school, and spoken t the youths, but it made no difference. It was like I was banging my head against a brick wall.”

Mr  Konstantinou has turn the hair salon for three years and says it has been a success. Among his clients he has snipped the locks of Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher and his pop star wife Nicole Appleton. the famous clients include Take That singer Mark Owen and Oasis's Brit Pop rival Damon Albarn of Blur. But as the problem got worse, and after speaking to Camden Council, his answer was to buy a mosquito alarm three months ago. But his conscience got the better of him.

He added: “I thought - this could effect any child walking pass. Marine Ices is just along the road and what if a parent with their children are queuing up to buy an ice cream? So I thought I'd set up a speaker and try some classical music – it works. They do not like it at all.”

Haverstock headteacher John Dowd said he had put in place measures to ensure his pupils were aware of the standrads of behaviour expected. He said: “We have had ongoing complaints from Mr Konstantinou about students standing on the pavement outside of his shop.  We have put in place a huge amount of support, including posting our school based police officer outside his premises at lunchtime, regular patrols after school and mobile phone access to me and the school based police officer.  We have spoken to all students and also raised the issue with parents in our weekly newsletter.  We only allow Year 11 and Sixth Form students out at lunchtime and patrol the area every afternoon at the end of the school day.”

He added the complaints had been about the students gathering in one place, not about their general behaviour. 

Mr Dowd said: “The complaints are not about the behaviour of our students, but the fact they congregate on the pavement, and generally we have a good relationship with Mr Konstantinou. The root cause of this is that Mr Konstantinou established his shop adjacent to an existing chicken shop, The Chalk Farm Grill, which is frequented predominantly by young people, including our students.  We have written to Camden Council about our concerns about the chicken shop, but they have told us that nothing can be done to revoke its trading license. We will continue to support Mr Konstantinou and move students away from the pavement.  Mr Konstantinou seems to assume that anyone who is outside his shop comes from Haverstock and this certainly is not the case.  We clearly have no jurisdiction over other young people. As regards to the piped classical music, I hope it has some effect but I fail to see how.  Young people are as receptive to good quality music as everyone else.  I assume his programme contains ‘the Barber of Seville’ and ‘the girl with the flaxen hair.’”