Townhouse is a nail bar for the digital generation: they don’t take cash; you can cancel up to two hours beforehand; and you couldn’t even book on the phone if you tried. Walls are grey, with poured-concrete floors, a millennial-pink sofa and the kind of healthy-looking cactus most of us could never hope to keep alive. You pick your colour or design (elegant, simple nail art – think pastel half moons, a single dark dot or a thin gold line – is their specialism) from a lookbook before your manicure or pedicure begins, and then there’s a ‘Nailfie’ booth for snapping your new nails and getting them on your stories as soon as they’ve dried.
Townhouse might be nice to look at, but there’s substance here as well as style. The standard is high. Wooden cuticle pushers, files and buffers are only used once and zipped up in a bag for customers to take away with them, while all metal tools are cleaned using hospital-grade sterilization. Therapists have incredible attention to detail, and take their time to make sure your nails really are healthy and ready for their close up. Manicures start at £35 while pedicures cost from £49.
