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Islington

56 Cross Street,
Islington,
London
N1 2BA

Opening hours

Monday to Friday - 10am-6pm

Saturday - 9am-6pm

Sunday - 11am-5pm

Services

Enhanced OCT eye examinations
Routine eye examinations
Frame repairs and adjustments
Lens changes
Bespoke services

Eye exams available for those aged 16 or older. We do not provide exams under the NHS or contact lens checks.

A gallery befitting spectacles, the design of Cubitts Islington is a response to the painterly perspective of the building at 56 Cross Street and the area’s artistic character, with nods to surrealism and Italian modernism dotted throughout. Spectacles line a single Nile glass shelf stretching the length of the space, each given its due as object worthy of reflection.

In a space characterised by its perspectival depth and tapering walls, the design looks to the characteristic architectural ambiguity of European surrealism. In particular, the paintings of Kay Sage, with their extreme vanishing points, provide a surprising geometry and colour palette of buttery yellow and aquatic greens.

A vast skylight spills natural light, evoking the artist’s studio or modern gallery.

Tom Broughton

Furnishings are derived from Sage’s enigmatic monoliths: a deep black central display desk based on the angles and shadows of works like Third Paragraph, and a custom-designed chaise-longue drawing on the painting No One Heard Thunder.

A few choice artworks further structure the experience of the space. Photographic works by Lee Miller cast the store through her surrealist lens, underlining a fascination with depth, light, and shadows. A group of FontanaArte prism-like pieces and handmade Omira magnification mirrors enhance the reverence for glass.

At the rear of the store, a testing room offers routine and enhanced OCT eye examinations. A custom-made unit displays acetate chips provides a focus for Bespoke services, while a dedicated space for on-site spectacle repairs sits to the side, furnished with Kurt Thut ‘Alu 3’ chairs.

The Cubitts Islington Collection

A collection of silhouettes exclusive to Cubitts Islington, available in store through our Bespoke service. Carlton, taking its name from the Grade II listed George Coles-designed cinema on the Essex Road, with its Art Deco styling, ornate façade, and Egyptian influence. With a dramatic stepped design taken directly from the architecture. Union, based on Islington’s iconic Union Chapel, a Gothic revivalist church that doubles as a charity space and music venue. Lens apertures based on the chapel’s arches, and a bevelled front that mimics the vaulted ceiling. And Bevin, named after Berthold Lubetkin’s modernist housing project on Cruikshank Street. An intentionally minimalist round silhouette, and a statement lens cut-out drawing on the building’s distinctive staircase.