A nine-metre oak wall of glasses frames lit by shelf lights, an optician placing a frame at the far end.

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6/60

Four

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6/18

people,

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6/6

one room.

An old bookbinder’s workshop on Cadence Yard, a nine-metre wall of oak, and a room where nobody rushes you.

The Optotype shopfront at blue hour, its name painted on the sign, the frame wall glowing through the window.

Bound books, then,

eyes and frames, now.

From 1931 to 1998 this was Harrow’s Bindery: presses on the ground floor, gold leaf in the back room. When we found it in 2019, the oak shelving was still on the walls.

We kept the shelves, sanded the floor and put the frames where the books used to be. The exam room is in the old gilding room at the back, where it’s quiet.

Four people.

Each one does one thing well.

Priya Lal at the slit lamp, seen over a patient's shoulder.

Priya Lal

Optometrist · Co-founder

Fourteen years in hospital eye clinics before Optotype. Reads every OCT scan herself, and explains it twice if you ask.

Tom Ferris showing a trial lens to a young patient.

Tom Ferris

Optometrist · Myopia

Runs the children’s clinic and the myopia programme. Keeps a drawer of stickers and a very small trial frame.

Ana Sousa fitting a tortoiseshell frame on a customer.

Ana Sousa

Dispensing optician

Chooses the frames on the wall and fits every pair. Will tell you, kindly, if a frame is wrong for your face.

Kit Morgan adjusting a frame at the workshop bench.

Kit Morgan

Frame workshop

Thirty years at the bench. Adjusts, repairs and remakes frames, including ones you bought somewhere else.

We’ll adjust them for free,

forever.

Even if you bought them somewhere else. Bring any pair to the workshop and Kit will warm, bend and tighten them while you wait. If a repair needs parts, you’ll get the price before he starts.

Kit Morgan adjusting a frame at the workshop bench.

14 Cadence Yard,

London E8 3RL.

Five minutes from Hackney Central. Step-free, with a ramp at the side door. Bikes welcome against the wall, under the window.

Open · until 19:00

Monday

09:00–19:00

Tuesday

09:00–19:00

Wednesday

09:00–19:00

Thursday

09:00–20:30

Friday

09:00–19:00

Saturday

10:00–17:00

Sunday

Closed

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