Beard Liberation Front
Media Release
9th August
Contact BLF Organiser Keith Flett @keithbeard.bsky.social
London Beard Week 2025 W G Grace shaves Jeremy Corbyn to win vote for Best Ever London Beard
The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that London Beard Week which runs from 5-9th August marks the continuing growth of beards in the Capital.
The central part of the week is the annual vote for London’s Best Ever Beard. With over 1,100 votes cast in an on-line poll cricketer W G Grace shaved Islington North MP Jeremy Corbyn for the accolade.
W G Grace got 35.4% of the vote compared to Jeremy Corbyn’s 29.2%. Michael Rosen stood down in favour of William Morris but their combined vote fell just short of that of W G Grace.
W G Grace’s beard was of Bristolian origin but from 1899 to his death in 1915 he lived in Mottingham in South-West London and therefore qualified to be on the poll.
It traditionally coincides with the Campaign For Real Ale’s Great British Beer Festival at Olympia often the source of anti-beard stories in the media. However this is running at the NEC in Birmingham in 2025. The Beard Liberation Front has sent follicular greetings for good imbibing.
The campaigners say that aside from the many more beards to be seen in workplaces, shops and pubs, there is also a growth of specialist beard care shops and hairdressers offering beard trims and treatments, although the BLF generally advises against beard trims in barbers shops.
London Beard Week is a celebration of London, now one of the most beard friendly Capital cities in the world, and of London’s great hirsute heritage from Charles Dickens to Karl Marx through to modern day beards such as Islington North MP Jeremy Corbyn and author and Arsenal fan Michael Rosen.
As part of the week the BLF ran a poll to find the most impactful and impressive figure with a beard who is associated with London, past and present.
BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, London is striking a decisive blow against pogonophobia, the irrational dislike of facial hair. It’s now respectable to wear a beard in London but that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for stylish and perhaps even world changing beards to be promoted further. We congratulate W G Grace, posthumously obviously, in being voted London’s Best Ever Beard although we accept of course that his beard matured in Bristol.
London Beard Week poll to find London’s most Iconic Beard.
An online poll ran during the week
In the preliminary votes, Jeremy Corbyn, William Morris, W G Grace & Michael Rosen shaved the other contenders.
Charles Dickens, author
Fred Engels, philosopher and activist
Michael Rosen, author & broadcaster
William Morris, socialist & designer
Jeremy Corbyn, Islington North MP
William Cuffay, Leader of London Chartism
Bernie Grant, London Labour MP
W G Grace, cricketer
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