Frames

Two hundred frames, chosen one at a time

At the table

How frames are chosen here

There is no browsing alone for forty minutes and then being asked whether you found anything. Somebody sits with you.

Your prescription first
A strong prescription rules out about half the wall before anyone talks about colour. Better to know that at the start than after you have fallen for one.
Twenty frames, not two hundred
Ruth takes down the ones that will fit your face and carry your lenses, and puts the rest away. Choosing from twenty is possible; choosing from two hundred is not.
Measured on your face
Bridge, temple length and where your pupils sit behind the lens, measured with the frame adjusted, not estimated from a photograph.
Sleep on it
We will hold a frame for a week with nothing paid. Most people come back for the second one they tried, and we would rather that than a return.

The makers

Eight makers, and why each is here

Small workshops, mostly family-held, none of them owned by the same group. We visit two of them a year.

Corbel & Fen — hand-cut acetate, the ones that last a decade
Marrow Optical — titanium, for anyone who has broken three pairs
Penhale Works — round metal, the cheapest good thing we sell
Oster & Kline — children's frames that survive a playground
Ivo Tarrant — rimless, for light prescriptions only
Brandt Rieger — the wide fittings nobody else stocks

A pair of lenses being edged at the workshop

The lenses

Ground by Halstead & Vine, forty miles away

Every lens we sell is surfaced by one workshop, which we name because we think you should be able to ask about it. They are eleven people in a converted mill, they take ten to fourteen days, and they will remake a lens on our word without an argument. It costs us more than sending the job abroad and it is the single decision this shop is least willing to change. If a lens comes back wrong, it goes back the same day and you keep wearing your old pair in the meantime.

Ruth Fielding, dispensing optician

Lenses

The lens options, in plain words

Lenses are where the money actually goes, and where the language is deliberately confusing everywhere else. Four options, described as what they do rather than what they are called.

Single vision
From 00
One prescription across the whole lens: for distance, or for reading, or for a screen at one fixed distance. Most people under forty-five need nothing else, and we will not push you past this.
- Scratch-resistant coating, always
- Thinned only where the prescription needs it
- Fitting and unlimited adjustment
- Remade free within 60 days if the prescription was ours and it is not right
Varifocal
From 000
Distance at the top, reading at the bottom, and a corridor between the two. The wider that corridor is, the more the lens costs, and the difference is real rather than marketing. We fit the mid-range one to most people.
- Measured on your face in the chosen frame
- Two weeks to get used to them, with a free remake to single vision if you cannot
- Anti-reflection coating included
- A second look at the fitting after a month
Office and screen lenses
From 000
A varifocal built for a room rather than a street: sharp from the keyboard to the far wall, useless for driving. If you spend seven hours at a desk, this is often the pair that helps most, and it is a second pair, not a replacement.
- Set to your actual desk, measured
- Anti-reflection coating included
- Fitting and unlimited adjustment
- Honest advice on whether you need them at all
Sun and tinted lenses
From 000
Your prescription in a tint, polarised if you drive or fish, or a light tint if bright light bothers you. Made in the same workshop, so a prescription sun pair matches the pair you wear indoors.
- Full ultraviolet protection at every tint
- Polarised at no extra cost
- Fitting and unlimited adjustment
- Made to the same prescription as your main pair

Prices are per pair and include fitting, edging and as many adjustments as you want afterwards. A frame is separate, from 00 to 000, and you may use your own if it is sound enough to take the lenses.

Afterwards

Repairs, adjustments and the things we do for nothing

Straightening and tightening
Free, for ever, for anyone who walks in, including glasses bought somewhere else entirely. It takes four minutes and it is the least we can do for a market square.
Nose pads and screws
Replaced while you wait, usually free. We keep pads and screws for frames we have never sold, because they are the same parts.
Soldering and new arms
Charged at what the part costs us, from 00. Some breaks cannot be mended and we will say so instead of taking the frame away for three weeks first.
Your old frame, new lenses
Perfectly sensible if the frame is sound. We will check it honestly and tell you if it will not survive the glazing; if we break it, we replace it.

Money

What things cost, and what we will tell you not to buy

Why a pair of glasses costs what it does

Roughly, and honestly: about a third of what you pay is the frame, about a third is the lens and the workshop that ground it, and about a third is the hour of somebody's time at the table plus the years of adjustments afterwards. Nothing in that last third can be discounted without quietly removing it, which is what a very cheap pair is doing.

The cheapest complete pair in this shop is 00. The most expensive is 000, and the difference is mostly the frame, not the lens. A 000 frame does not see better than an 00 one; it fits better, it is made better, and it will still be straight in eight years. That is worth paying for or it is not, and you are allowed to decide it is not.

The four things we will talk you out of

A thinner lens you do not need. Below about a moderate prescription, thinning the lens changes almost nothing you will notice and adds 00 to the bill. We will tell you where your prescription actually sits and what the difference would look like.

Rimless with a strong prescription. It looks light and it will crack at the drill holes. We will not sell it to you; we will show you the thin metal frame that gives you the same look and survives.

The widest varifocal, by default. It suits people who spend all day moving between distances. If you mostly read and mostly drive, the mid-range lens is better value and you will not feel the difference. About half the people who ask for the top lens leave with the middle one.

A second pair because it is half price. It is only worth having if it does something the first pair does not — sun, or a desk, or a spare in the car. Two identical pairs is not a saving.

What we will not do

We will not quote a price that changes at the till. Everything is totalled and written down before you agree to anything, and it includes the lens, the frame, the coatings and the fitting.

We will not put a lens in a frame that cannot carry it, however much you want that frame. That is the one place we are inflexible, and it is because you will be back in four months unhappy and we will both have wasted the money.

We will not sell you glasses on the day we have referred you to a hospital. Wait until your eye has settled; the prescription will be different and you would be buying it twice.

If they are not right

Bring them back. Within sixty days, if the prescription was ours and something is wrong, we remake the lenses at no charge, and if we still cannot get it right we refund the lenses in full. That is not a gesture; it happens perhaps a dozen times a year, and it is the reason the fitting takes an hour.

Questions

The ones people ask in a lower voice

Can I say I cannot afford that?
Please do, and say it early. There is a good pair at every point between 00 and 000, and knowing your number at the start means we take the right twenty frames off the wall instead of the wrong ones.
I bought these online and they give me a headache.
Bring them in. Often the prescription is fine and the centres are in the wrong place for your face, which we can measure and explain in ten minutes. We charge nothing for looking and we will not make you feel foolish.
Can I take my prescription and buy elsewhere?
Yes, and you already have it; we hand it over at the end of the examination without being asked. It includes the figures an online seller needs. You will be treated exactly the same when you come back.
Do you do payment over a few months?
Over three months, in equal parts, with nothing added. Ask at the table; there is no form and no credit check.
Are the expensive frames actually better?
Better made, usually: hand-cut acetate, proper hinges, parts that can be replaced in six years. Not better for your eyes. The lens does that, and the lens costs the same in either frame.
I have tried varifocals before and hated them.
Tell us that first. Often they were fitted too low or measured off the face. We will fit them properly and, if you still cannot get on with them in two weeks, remake them as single vision and charge you the lower price.

Come and try some on

No appointment for the frame wall. Bring your prescription, whoever wrote it, and an hour if you have one.

Where to find us Book an examination first

Two hundred frames, chosen one at a time

Your prescription first

Twenty frames, not two hundred

Measured on your face

Sleep on it

Single vision

Varifocal

Office and screen lenses

Sun and tinted lenses

Straightening and tightening

Nose pads and screws

Soldering and new arms

Your old frame, new lenses

Why a pair of glasses costs what it does

The four things we will talk you out of

What we will not do

If they are not right

Can I say I cannot afford that?

I bought these online and they give me a headache.

Can I take my prescription and buy elsewhere?

Do you do payment over a few months?

Are the expensive frames actually better?

I have tried varifocals before and hated them.

Come and try some on