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 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.