Tidworth mum turns her old school science block into dream hair salon – Wiltshire Live
A Tidworth mum has transformed a derelict school science block into her dream hair salon. Castledown Comprehensive School was knocked down and rebuilt into Wellington Academy in 2009, with just two remaining original buildings, including the science block – where Julie Roberts once had tutor lessons.
The property had been sat desolate for around eight years, when the hairdresser decided to take over the lease and give it a major makeover, converting space into a quirky hair salon with a ‘spa feel.’ Julie told Wiltshire Live: “I left school in 1987 and was only too glad to see the back of it really and then I was forced into a situation where I needed to be earning quite a lot, as I went through a divorce.
“I had always wanted to be a hairdresser and The Wellington Academy started doing adult learning courses, so I spent two years here before going out on my own mobile for the last 12 years. I kept driving past the school and thinking, I wonder what’s happening with that salon, because I knew they didn’t teach there anymore. And it turns out it had just been sat doing nothing for years. So I’ve breathed some life into it.”
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(Image: Julie Roberts)
Julie opened Phase 3 Salon on June 13, after a three month revamp and complete transformation with the help of her interior designer daughter and partner. “It was a neglected building and now it looks lovely,” she added. The 50 year-old mum, strived to create a ‘spa feel’ opposed to a busy high street salon and says she has had very positive feedback from customers who say the space has a “peaceful, quiet and lovely” feel to it.
Julie was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2016, and she believed that she would always be governed by the illness. “But this has just proved to me that with the right help and care, you can still achieve what everybody else achieves,” she said. Adding: “I am absolutely thrilled and I just love it here. It has been a dream – I never thought in a million years that I’d ever have my own place – especially not in my old science block! I probably spent quite a lot of time trying to avoid being in here!”
(Image: Julie Roberts)
With the help of her family, and her daughter’s keen eye, the inside is now unrecognisable – painted duck-egg green, while one wall has been transformed into a mural by a local artist and all of the chairs have been recovered with a tan, white and green colour scheme. Foliage is also dotted around, with a few splashes of purple to break it up. “Nice, calm and serene colours,” Julie said.
According to the new lease holder, bar a Sunday church group and a radio station, “nothing really happens in the building,” and she hopes that by having the salon there, it will turn into a community hub. Countless have stopped to tell her how pleased they are to have seen the building transformed and turned into something that would breath life into the community, she revealed.
The proud owner of the brand new quirky hair salon specialises in Scalp Therapy Treatments, treating baldness and hair thinnning, although she offers all sorts of hairdressing services and hopes to embark on a tricology training course soon. “Every day when I pull up outside, I take a deep breath and look at my name over the door and think ‘yes – you’ve done it,'” she said.
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