The Canary

The east London outpost of this cheery and progressive hairdressers and veggie cafe is a neighbourhood star. Tucked away in a Bethnal Green side street, opposite a pocket-sized park, you’re unlikely to stumble across it unless you’re hyper local, but it’s well worth making the effort to find.

The atmosphere is authentically creative and friendly; this feels like a place that’s designed and staffed by people who care about its values and success. Happily, there’s nothing preachy about those values. Yes, Gav and the team are currently developing some very bespoke-sounding vegan hair treatments using only ultra-natural ingredients like avocado (Instagrammers of the future, the ‘clean hair’ movement started here!). However nothing on the standard menu will scare off the less highly committed customer: expect to get a deft professional haircut using nice, environmentally considerate products, at a standard price range for a niche hair salon in east London (prices start at £45 for a men’s cut and style).

The salon menu includes beard trims from £18 and specialises in colour. That’s also true of the imaginative tiny café/deli on the left hand side of the building, which serves up imaginative, colourful meat-free versions of classic cakes and sandwiches. The emphasis is on experimentation and the dishes change daily, but the hit-to-miss ratio is high. The vegan BLT is astonishing. Like everything here, it’s done with flair, care, and commitment to the customer and the planet.