British spectacle maker Cubitts has opened The Yard, its new headquarters and optical manufactory in King’s Cross, London. The site, at 6 Blundell Street, officially opened on Thursday. The 13,000-square-foot building houses frame making, lens production, design, repair, consultation, training and exhibition space under one roof.
The Yard occupies former Victorian stables that once served the nearby Crosse & Blackwell vinegar brewery. The building was designed by 51 Architecture, which retained much of the original structure — London stock brick, stable fabric and cobbled floors — alongside later additions, including 1980s post-modern concrete and purple ducting. A distinctive color palette was developed with Simon March.
“We’ve stripped away the paint and the lipstick, and let the building speak for itself,” said Tom Broughton, Cubitts’ founder. “We didn’t want to turn it into something pristine. We wanted to show it for what it is.”
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Frame production at The Yard uses five-axis CNC machines, with finishing and assembly completed by hand. The on-site optical laboratory uses glazing and milling equipment that Cubitts said is designed to reduce water and energy consumption. The company described The Yard as the only spectacle-making workshop operating in central London.
The site will also host the workshop of Lawrence Jenkin, the master spectacle maker who originally taught Broughton the craft of frame making. Jenkin will work alongside Cubitts’ team at the new location.
Beyond manufacturing, The Yard includes a design studio, a bespoke consultation room for custom frame commissions, a training academy for opticians and makers, and a growing archive of historic spectacles spanning more than two centuries. A commercial kitchen and communal dining space round out the building, which Cubitts plans to use for talks, suppers, exhibitions and industry events.
The opening coincides with an exterior mural by British artist David Shrigley, marking the building’s public-facing side. Painted directly onto the wall, the work pairs a large, brightly colored cockerel with one of Shrigley’s deadpan lines: “It was me that was crowing at dawn. Now you know.”
“Tom’s a good pal of mine and I’m a big fan of Cubitts spectacles,” Shrigley said. “So I was delighted to provide a mural for Cubitts HQ and thought this would be a good fit for the wall.”
Cubitts represents the project as an investment of approximately 500,000 euros into its manufacturing, design, repair, training and cultural infrastructure. Founded in King’s Cross in 2013 by Broughton, the brand now operates 20 stores, with openings planned in Manchester and Dublin.
