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Frames in extra small to extra large. Goldilocks would have a lovely time.

9.5 out of 10 people would recommend Cubitts. We're working on the other 0.5.

Frames in extra small to extra large. Goldilocks would have a lovely time.

9.5 out of 10 people would recommend Cubitts. We're working on the other 0.5.

Manchester

Stores Manchester
Manchester

16 Smithfield Buildings,
Hilton Street,
Manchester
M4 1NB

Opening hours

Monday to Saturday - 9:30am-6:30pm

Sunday - 11am-5pm

Services

Enhanced OCT eye examinations
Routine eye examinations
Frame repairs and adjustments
Lens changes
Made to Measure services

+441615241090 manchester@cubitts.com
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Eye exams available for those aged 16 or older. We do not provide exams under the NHS or contact lens checks.

Set within the former Affleck & Brown department store, Cubitts Manchester draws on the building’s history of drapery, measurement and making. Founded in the 1860s, Affleck & Brown grew from a small Oldham Street draper into a department store occupying an entire city block. Known as the Harrods of the North, it sold cloth by the yard, made garments to measure and dressed generations of Mancunians. Cubitts now occupies no. 16 on the Hilton Street side of that same block.

We make spectacles that are measured, fitted, adjusted, repaired and made to last, inside a building that spent a century doing much the same thing with cloth.

Tom Broughton

Designed with Manchester studio YOUTH, the shop brings together sanded steel, textured glass and warm timber. The materials are industrial but not severe, reflecting both the building’s exposed iron structure and the working character of the surrounding Northern Quarter. Sanded steel rods support glass display platforms cast with a surface resembling rain on a window. A faceted oak counter provides a warmer centrepiece. Repairs, eye examinations and bespoke consultations remain visible throughout: a working optician rather than a decorative homage.

The store is furnished with objects connected to making, industry and modernism. An original Francis Hoyland painting depicts a seamstress at work, while a Cubist gouache by Marcel Gille shows a forge worker. Modernist sandstone figures by Richard Perry sit alongside a revolving bookcase made by Manchester cabinetmakers Goodall, Lamb and Heighway from timber salvaged from HMS Foudroyant.

The bookcase now holds a selection from Manchester’s The Modernist. An integrated record player provides music chosen for atmosphere rather than postcode, while our neighbours Piccadilly Records have traded from the same block since 1978.

A spectacle shop in a former draper’s department store, filled with things made carefully, used properly and kept for a long time.

The Cubitts Manchester collection

Three frames inspired by Manchester’s independent music history, tracing a line from Northern Soul and punk to Madchester and The Haçienda.

Peter draws on the restless energy of the Sex Pistols’ 1976 performance at the Lesser Free Trade Hall. Attended by future members of Joy Division, The Smiths and The Fall, the gig became a catalyst for Manchester’s independent music scene. A sharp, angular rectangle with a low brow, Peter reflects punk’s belief that attitude and invention matter more than polish.

Whitworth takes its cues from Madchester and The Haçienda, where indie, acid house and electronic music collided. Its rounded panto shape and softened geometry balance graphic structure with the movement and irreverence of the city’s late-eighties club culture.

Brazenose is inspired by the Twisted Wheel and the birth of Northern Soul. A bold, upswept quadra with a sculpted brow, it reflects the scene’s fast rhythms, acrobatic dancing and obsession with rare records: expressive, energetic and made to be noticed.

An integrated record player sits within the service counter, although the musical programme deliberately avoids the obvious roll call of Manchester bands.

A revolving bookcase made by Manchester cabinetmakers Goodall, Lamb and Heighway from timber salvaged from Admiral Horatio Nelson’s flagship in the Mediterranean, HMS Foudroyant. She was sadly wrecked on Blackpool Sands during a storm in 1897.

Peter draws on the restless energy of the Sex Pistols’ 1976 performance at the Lesser Free Trade Hall. Made here in crimson.