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Spitalfields

86 Commercial Street,
Spitalfields,
London,
E1 6LY

Opening hours

Monday to Friday - 10am-7pm
Saturday - 10am-6pm
Sunday - 12pm-6pm

Services

Enhanced OCT eye examinations
Routine eye examinations
Frame repairs and adjustments
Lens changes
Bespoke services
Not wheelchair accessible

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

Our Spitalfields store is situated in a 19th century store building, next to the historic Ten Bells Pub of Jack the Ripper fame, in the shadow of Hawksmoor’s Christ Church. The store’s striking façade was hand painted by artist Ian Harper with traditional facsimile wood graining in a Victorian style to match the period of the shop front, and cohere with neighbouring buildings.

The interior takes design notes from the Huguenots who made Spitalfields their home in the 17th and 18th centuries, including latticed spectacle display shelves based on Jacquard silk weaving looms. Downstairs, the eye examination waiting room features a Jacquard punch card, a precursor to Charles Babbage’s mechanical engine, while the stairs feature a textile designed by contemporary artist Majeda Clarke, bringing our reverence for textiles to the present day.

A fondness for Spitalfields’ history paired with a typically-Cubitts celebration of 20th century modernism.

Tom Broughton

A fondness for history is paired with a typically-Cubitts celebration of 20th century modernism. A central desk draws inspiration from the designs of Pierre Jeanneret, with pigeonholes and elegantly tapered legs, features mirrored in a side table by Gordon Russell.

We’ve also found chairs by Parker Knoll – a company founded in Shoreditch in the 1930s – which we’ve reupholstered with the help of East London’s own Ainsworth Broughton. They accompany a limed oak armchair by Serge Chermayoff, the modernist mind behind Bexhill’s De-la-Warr Pavillion.

The Cubitts Spitalfields collection

Three frame silhouettes are available exclusively at Cubitts Spitalfields, drawing on local history.

Princelet takes design notes from the flying shuttle, a tool used by the silk weavers of Spitalfields, with bevelled details around the lug and temples. Fournier is boldly amorphous design, whose asymmetry is based on the unbalanced dualisms and irreverent playfulness of the work of East End artists Gilbert and George. Esqulant, named after legendary local landlady Sandra Esqulant, is a butterfly silhouette recalling popular 70s styles in homage to the East End’s vintage heritage, with dropped lugs and curving temples.