Rolling back the years at Knox’s
The salon itself, Knox’s of Henry Street, Dublin had been closed for more than 40 years and Geraldine had long since lost contact with her old workmates. However the response was overwhelming.
And last week in Wynns Hotel, Dublin, 23 of Knox’s old staff — all sporting maiden name tags supplied by Geraldine to aid identification — met for lunch and a catch-up.
“They came from all over — Cork, Donegal, Tipperary, Kildare, Monaghan and of course Dublin,” says Geraldine. “And I had several calls from old workmates living abroad who couldn’t make it but wanted to send their regards.” Predictably the chat was all about the good times in Knox’s heyday.
According to Geraldine, it was the largest and most exclusive salon in Dublin at the time. Established in 1958, Knox’s of 22-23 Henry Street was spread over three floors and came complete with a coffee bar (unheard of back then, says Geraldine, and a great attraction for clients and staff alike).
It employed 68 hairdressers, two beauticians, two receptionists, two cleaners, a cashier, and one Miss Tweedale — a formidable lady, by all accounts, whose sole function was to measure, mix and dispense perming and colouring lotions from her top floor storeroom. And over this mini empire Mr Tommy Knox — “always mister” — reigned supreme.
Geraldine describes her boss as a man whose gruff exterior hid a kindly heart. She recalls how when she once — literally — landed a customer in hospital, she was more concerned about her boss’s reaction than that of her hapless client — although as it transpired, she needn’t have worried.
“The client told me she was on her way to hospital but didn’t say why,” she explains. “I was shaving the back of her neck with an open razor when I cut off a wart under her hairline. There was blood everywhere.”
Geraldine immediately draped her client in a towel and escorted her to nearby Jervis Street hospital where they were met by a surgeon. “By sheer coincidence the lady had been on her way to that very surgeon to have the wart removed. He examined my handiwork, told me he couldn’t have done the job better himself, and gave the lady two stitches. And Mr Knox never said a word.”
According to Geraldine, with a clientele featuring the country’s elite, discretion was paramount. She recalls being sent to the Gresham Hotel to do a guest’s hair with strict instructions to “say nothing about anything I might see or hear.”
She ended up, rooted to the spot, outside a bedroom suite from which there came “the most awful shouting and swearing, and the sound of glass being smashed.” Eventually the hotel manager arrived and sent her back to the salon.
“That evening on the train home I read in the Evening Press ‘Liz Taylor and Richard Burton in bust up at The Gresham.’ It was them!”
For sisters Maura and Geraldine Murphy from Inchicore, Knox’s was the last word in glamour. Now retired and living in Castleknock, 60-year-old Maura remembers actresses Siobhán McKenna and Maureen Potter getting their shampoos and sets (eight shillings and sixpence — and they always tipped) and presenters from RTÉ — then known as Teilifís Éireann and located at the bottom of Henry Street — regularly dropping in for hairdos and manicures.
“I remember seeing Kathleen Watkins [then a continuity announcer] and being amazed by her red hair. Back then on television your hair was either black or white!”
Sisters Nora and Peggy Byrne from Kilcock remember their customers as a mix of the ordinary and extraordinary. “We had Moore Street traders coming in for their perms and pulling money out of their bras to pay at the cash desk,” Nora recalls, telling of how one of the city’s top store detectives once found herself wedged between two of Dublin’s most notorious shoplifters under the hairdryers. “I don’t know who was more mortified!” she laughs.
Nora’s sister Peggy remembers how, long before he became famous, Thin Lizzy’s Phil Lynott used to wait outside Knox’s in the evenings for his girlfriend who was a junior hairdresser there. “She used to get us tickets for his afternoon hop gigs at the County Bar in Lucan,” says Peggy. “He very quiet and shy and seemed mortified by all the attention — not a bit like his public image.” Luke Kelly of the Dubliners was also a familiar face at Knox’s, where his aunt was a cleaner. “He’d come straight from Madigan’s pub to walk his aunt home after her afternoon shift,” says Peggy. “We had the poor woman plagued for tickets to his gigs. I remember getting free passes to two of his concerts in Liberty Hall.”
According to Dubliner Jacqueline Copeland, whose father Louis Copeland Senior owned a menswear shop in Capel Street, Knox’s clientele featured the cream of Irish society. “I was very young at the time and didn’t recognise many of the big names, but my brother Louis used to send some of the country’s top horse trainers and businessmen around to me for a trim while he was making last minute alterations to their clothes.”
Jacqueline, who attributes her own cutting skills to her master tailor father, says that under the watchful eye of Mr Knox the salon ran like clockwork. “Although we had literally thousands of customers the boss would run his eye over ever client as they were leaving. And woe betide the stylist if a hair was out of place!”
She recalls modelling a very intricate upstyle incorporating two hairpieces for a competition run by The Hairdressing Association of Ireland and presented in the Gresham Hotel by actor Joe Lynch. “We were told afterwards that if we had used black hairpins instead of brown we would have won it. As it was we came second. That’s how exacting the standards were.”
Having worked her way up to becoming the boss’s personal hair stylist, in 1969 Jacqueline left to open her own salon over the family premises in Capel Street. Now retired, the 65-year-old mother of one has fond memories of her time in Knox’s. “It was like one big happy family,” she says.
In 1963 Limerick born Rose Buckley came to work in Knox’s as a qualified stylist. More than half a century on she still remembers to the penny how much she was paid. “Seven pounds, 18 shillings and ninepence. Plus tips of course. And out of it I paid 32 shillings and sixpence rent for my flat in Rathmines.” Rose describes her clients as “anybody who was anybody,” and once included a member of the British aristocracy.
“I was sent by Tommy Knox to the Rotunda Hospital to do Lord Mountbatten’s daughter hair. She was in a beautiful, private room — it even had a drinks trolley. And she tipped very well!” After leaving Knox’s to get married in 1965 Rose lost contact with one of her best friends, junior stylist Shelia Garland from Inchicore. Last week, after 52 years, they were finally reunited. And a great time was had by all.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
