Charlie Black / 18 July 2025 / Categories: City, Services, Shops, Specialty

The London Nail Shop Churchgate Leicester

It was an experience where the service was actually really good

Wanted to share my experience today at London Nails on Churchgate in Leicester. Not because it was especially amazing but the staff worked really hard to accommodate my friends and I amidst a busy nail salon with a load of rude and ungrateful customers. We actually couldn’t believe how horrible the customers actually were bossing the young men around tasked with doing their nails and trying their best to offer a good service.

I ended up there quite by chance. I had the day off and the one thing I wanted to do was get my nails sorted out having had too many in fills the last three or four visits because I was short on time and needed my acrylic nails completely redoing.

I’d called both ladies I normally go to and both were fully booked all day and after driving around for about an hour visiting every nail shop in a two mile radius of my home, all packed found myself being forced to drive into Leicester city centre. I haven’t been into the centre of town for a while and I was really shocked by how run down and alien it looked. I honestly felt like I was a stranger in my own town. I parked in the Haymarket shopping centre and when four rowdy young men got in the lift with my friend and I, being loud and not speaking English, I did think what would we do if they attacked us. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so threatened in the town centre in the middle of the day before. I consciously covered my watch and wished I wasn’t carrying a designer handbag. I honestly felt threatened walking through the shopping centre and outside by the clock tower where all manner of tramps, hobos, drunks and religious preachers were gathered.

We walked up the high st with one aim in mind to sort out our nails but every shop we looked into was absolutely packed. Standing room only. The amount of customers for nails was unbelievable considering the majority of people walking around looked like they were more likely to rob you than be in search of a beauty treatment.

In the end we walked down Churchgate towards St Margaret’s Bus station, my friend said last resort there were a few nail bars down there we might just get lucky.

Don’t get me wrong London Nails is no frills but when we arrived there were several young guys all sitting doing nothing eager to get started on us both for manicures and pedicures.

We had absolutely no complaints about the service we received. And the staff who took care of us made every effort to accommodate all our specific requests about nail shape, length and personal preferences even though no one actually appeared to speak English the energy was good and everyone was extremely cordial, handing out sweets mid appointment and going over and above to make us happy.

We didn’t have the place to ourselves for long, it felt a bit like we could have just found ourselves down a back street in Peong Peng until a mix of rude English people and people with accents and different types of clothing appeared and began demanding these boys jump to it.

The prices were extremely low, we paid £25 for pedicures and £35 for a full set of acrylic nails, services that usually cost £40 and £50 respectively so it was really good value and when we both left a £5 tip it clearly was such a rare occurrence the boys blatantly fluttered the notes under the noses of their colleagues in absolute glee and gratitude.

It was very sweet. And we were happy that our small gesture of appreciation had such a big impact.

Based on our expectation of what we thought we were in for the service provided was 5 star and the people who took care of us went over and above to make our visit exactly what we needed.

When we left we were both thanked and offered loyalty cards to encourage us to return.

If the ordeal to park in Leicester City centre and navigate the run down dirty streets wasn’t so visually grim and at times somewhat threatening, scary and unsettling, people crashed out and doped up in the middle of the day, we’d probably return to London Nails as the service we received for the price was really very good. It’s a shame the staff have to deal with the customers we saw during our visit. And that Leicester City Centre has slipped so far away from what I remember in just a few

short years.

Seeing the iconic Marks and Spencer building, Marks and Spencer has been in the same spot since I was born, still empty was very sad. And the businesses, shops and restaurants that have appeared didn’t encourage us to hang out and shop. As soon as the nails were done we got the hell out of there sadly.