Shefik Mehmet: 50 Years in Harringay and still going strong!

For the Chairman of the Harringay Green Lanes Traders Association and multi-community award winner Shefik Mehmet, 2017 was a very special year indeed. The former hairdresser and salon owner now 70 years old and his family recently celebrated their 50th year as local traders on the Green Lanes high street. Despite having been retired from the hair, tanning and beauty salon for around fifteen years and leaving management to his daughter Zishan and son Nevzat, Shefik – often called “Shef” by locals – still comes to Green Lanes every day.

We decided to learn more from one of Harringay’s longest-serving traders so we sat down with Shef to find out about his time in business locally, his work at the heart of the community and what he loves about the area.

Originally a Turkish Cypriot and fluent in Turkish, Greek and English, Shef first came to the UK in 1958 before moving to Harringay around the time of the early 1960s. He took over a hair salon named Cherie’e in 1967 at age 20. “Cherie’e is written in a French style, I loved the name and I never changed it. Three things never changed here in the salon, the name, the phone number and the street number. We’ve kept it all the same for fifty years,” said Shef.

Shef has also seen plenty of change in his time on the lanes though, especially in the hair and beauty industry having been an early pioneer of unisex salons.

“I was a hairdresser myself for a long time. My hairdressing was more technical, like colouring and perms. In the early 1960s up to the 70s and 80s perming was very popular. We even used to perm men’s hair,” he explained.

“We were one of the first salons in London to start working as a unisex hairdresser in the mid-70s. When we started the salon was purely for ladies, but we had lots of male friends who came after working hours for haircuts.”

Later on, “they began to come in our working hours. At first they were a little shy, and so were the ladies, but in time they got used to it. So we were one of the first to become unisex,” he added.

Shef has also been devoted to the community for many years, receiving several awards including one for long service as a governor of Conel College between 2005-2017 and was recognised as a Haringey Hero by the council. He also sits on several committees to assist the Metropolitan Police’s engagement with the local community including the Met Police Community Boxing Club and the Turkish, Kurdish and Turkish Cypriot Forum. “I do a lot of community work in my spare time,” he said.

He was also a founding member of the Harringay Traders Association in 1984 and has been chair ever since. “We have been working in Green Lanes on many issues, helping the local traders and trying to regenerate the area,” he explained.

Shef’s proudest achievement in his work as Traders Association chair is his leading part in organising the first and second Harringay Green Lanes Food Festivals.

“Early in 2004, we started talking about an idea of mine to have a food festival here on Green Lanes. We were talking for several years to the police, local council, the fire brigade and TFL because everybody had to agree and be involved,” he said.

“It was a big operation, we had to shut the Green Lanes to traffic and do the festival on the main road which is one of the busiest in North London. After everybody agreed, the reality came true in 2009 and we hosted the first Harringay Green Lanes Food Festival.”

“The second one was in 2011, we covered a larger area than the first one. We had over 110 food stalls from different countries. We also had two stages at each end of the festival with more than 20 different musical performers and dancers, and it was attended by 20,000 people. It was one of the biggest festivals in the borough. I was proud of these two festivals and everyone is still asking when the next one is going to be” he said, “I hope maybe we can deliver one next year.”

When asked what he loves most about Harringay, Shef replied, “I love the diversity most around here. We did some research three or four years ago and discovered that 25 different languages are spoken along Green Lanes. This is something I love. I also love the value and quality of the food you get here, it’s one of the best places in London.”