Cubitts opens new optical manufacturing facility in London

British spectacle maker Cubitts, founded in 2013, has opened a new headquarters and optical manufactory in King’s Cross, London, investing around 500,000 pounds to bring together frame making, lens production, design, repair, consultation, exhibition and training under one roof.

The 13,000 square foot ‘The Yard’ marks “a new model for optical production in Britain,” explains the brand, returning spectacle making to an area of London once closely associated with the craft, as the streets around Clerkenwell and King’s Cross were once home to many of Britain’s spectacle makers.

Located within former Victorian stables that once served the nearby Crosse & Blackwell vinegar brewery, the headquarters have been designed as a working ecosystem for the brand, “part factory, part school, part studio and part cultural space” as a place where “spectacles can be designed, manufactured, glazed, repaired and fitted in one building,” allowing visitors to experience the process first-hand.

Cubitts invests 500,000 pounds in British manufacturing with the only spectacle-making workshop in central London

Tom Broughton, founder of Cubitts, said in a statement: "After years of moving through offices, railway arches and improvised workshops, The Yard is Cubitts’ permanent home. It is a one-of-a-kind manufactory in central London, bringing spectacle frame making, glazing, design and the full Cubitts team under one roof.

"Cubitts has always been rooted in King’s Cross. We began on my kitchen table in Cubitt Street, and have moved through a series of increasingly unlikely spaces — offices, arches, borrowed corners — but never quite found our home. The Yard at Blundell Street is that home. Just off the Cally, in the shadow of Pentonville Prison, it feels very King’s Cross: a working building for a working part of London.

"We’ve stripped away the paint and the lipstick, and let the building speak for itself. The London stock brick, the Victorian stable fabric, the original cobbled floor, the pine boards, even the 1980s post-modern concrete and purple ducting — all of it is part of the story. We didn’t want to turn it into something pristine. We wanted to show it for what it is."

Inside Cubitts’ new headquarters and workshops

The building centres on a large open courtyard, which has been transformed into a working frame-making workshop and headquarters, where advanced manufacturing technologies sit alongside traditional hand skills. Highlights include an onsite optical laboratory featuring next-generation glazing and milling equipment designed to reduce water and energy consumption, alongside five-axis CNC machines for frame production, and space for Cubitts’ makers to carry out finishing and assembly by hand.

Alongside the workshop and laboratory, the headquarters houses Cubitts’ design studio, creative facilities and growing archive, including a curated collection of historically significant spectacles spanning more than two centuries. There is also a bespoke consultation room, where clients can commission custom frames and explore Cubitts’ bespoke services and a repair and servicing area.

The Yard also hosts the workshop of master spectacle maker Lawrence Jenkin, who originally taught Cubitts founder Tom Broughton the craft of frame making. At the new site, Jenkin will work alongside Cubitts’ makers, helping to carry forward a tradition of British spectacle making that has largely disappeared from central London.

The building, designed by 51 Architecture, also includes a commercial kitchen and communal dining space, allowing Cubitts to host talks, suppers, exhibitions and industry events, alongside a dedicated training academy for the company’s opticians and makers. The brand also commissioned a mural by David Shrigley for the exterior.

“The intention is for The Yard to be more than a workplace: an active house for making, learning, hospitality and cultural exchange,” added Cubitts.