Madrid says goodbye to its oldest barbershop. After 126 years of activity and located next to the Plaza Mayor, El Kinze de Cuchilleros will close on December 31, as announced in a letter to its customers.
“We write these words with a lump in our throat,” the statement says. “We lose you, because here there were not customers, there were people. For none of us it is just the closing of a job, it is saying goodbye to a very big part of our life“.
The text is signed by Alfonso Sanchidrián, whose family has been running the business since 1963. In addition to the people of the neighborhood, among its customers were public figures such as writers Camilo José Cela, Arturo Pérez-Reverte and Juan Eslava Galán. Actors such as Pepón Nieto or Fernando Tejero and musicians such as Dani Martín have also passed through.
More than a century of history
The closure of El Kinze de Cuchilleros is not due to lack of customers or economic problems, but to an internal decision. As explained by El Debate, the partners were unable to reach an agreement to continue with the project and put the establishment up for sale, ending a period of more than a century.
Although there were already barbershops on Cuchilleros Street since 1848, it was not until January 2, 1900 when Eladio Gurumeta from Burgos opened his own business at number 15. The barbershop quickly became a meeting place for the neighbors and, as explained on its website, the press in 1907 already reflected how they shared a lottery ticket.
In 1958 it passed into the hands of Guillermo Coello, who renamed the barbershop with his surname, and in 1963 the Sanchidrián family joined, who have maintained the tradition from father to son until today and gave it its current name in the 90s.
Witness to change
The Knifemakers’ Kinze has withstood wars, crises and even the 2020 pandemic. “After the 50 days of mandatory closure decreed by the government, it was the first establishment to reopen in Madrid, as reported in the national press,” they state on their own website.
In it they show their pride for being the longest continuously open barbershop in the city. In fact, in the premises they kept old tools of the trade such as the barber’s basins, which were used to mix the shaving foam, and also their famous Acha chairs, brought from Eibar.
But what mattered most to them was dealing with the customer. In the words of José Cela, “the barber is half doctor and half confessor; and this one, moreover, is castizo”. Now they say goodbye thanking their customers, friends and neighbors after so many laughs, silences, rushes and conversations that only happen in front of the barber’s mirror.