EYEWEAR

Benjamin Martin was one of the first people to term himself an optician. In the 1760s he had premises on Fleet Street

Hatton Garden was the manufacturing centre. Strand was the buying centre; travelling salesmen covered the rest of Britain.

Opticians often carried on a second trade as a jeweller, a pharmacist, or a photographer.

Turtles were imported from the Seychelles. Opticians would select.

Oliver Goldsmith was a very fashionable optician during the 1960s.

In the 1970s manufacturing died away in London.

The British Optical Association

The British Optical Association was founded in 1901. The organisation has a museum. In 1914 it was opened to the public. Visits are now by appointment.

Location: 42 Craven Street, WC2N 5NG (grey, pink)

Website: www.college-optometrists.org/the-british-optical-association-museum

Monocles

Monocles fell out of fashion after the First World War because they had come to be associated with German generals. Subsequently, most who sported them were engaging in mild eccentricity.

Opticians

Cutler & Gross

Tony Gross (1939-2018) was interested in the clubs of Soho. His G.P. father wanted him to become a doctor. They compromised on his becoming an optician, a prospect that he did not view with much optimism. At Northampton College's optometry school he became friends with Graham Cutler. They graduated in 1963. Subsequently, Gross worked in a practice on the Holloway Road, moonlighting as a professional poker player at the White Elephant Club in Mayfair. He found that the frames he could sell in his day-job were boring, unsuitable or just plain ugly.

Gross took to buying vintage frames to supplement the standard N.H.S. ones. Cutler had come to the same conclusion. They decided to join together and turn glasses from being unattractive, government-funded pieces of eye science into fashion items that were sexy and mysterious. In 1969 they opened Cutler & Gross on Knightsbridge Green; the shop's interior was designed by Piers Gough. George Smith was their framemaker. Cutler's designs proved to be able to attract a fashion-conscious clientele that included numerous celebrities. Elton John became a great friend and Gross would advise him on which spectacles to wear with which costume.

It was illegal for opticians to advertise. However, in 1979 Cutler and Gross circumvented the law by having photographs of glasses chains shot. Gross worked closely with fashion designers to make glasses a core element of haute couture. Initially, had been dismissive of it because it was superficial, ephemeral and lightweight but came to conclude that it was these elements that made it exciting. In retrospect, he came to believe that he had been responsible for the way in pop stars and actors wore dark glasses indoors. The Gross & Cutler brand's reputation for hipness prompted Calvin Klein to try to buy it. In 1985 the no publicity restrictions on optometrists were loosened and Gross was able to act as the business's spokesperson.

Gross was the younger brother of the literary critic and editor John Gross, who was once described as the best-read man in Britain. Gross himself developed friendships with the likes of David Hockney and Howard Hodgkin. He enjoyed his nightlife but suffered a serious stroke that left him barely able to either walk or talk. In 2008 he sold his interest in the company. He refused to wear glasses that he had designed, Out of principle. It's like trying to sell them.

Location: 16 Knightsbridge Green, SW1X 7QL (blue, turquoise)

Website: www.cutlerandgross.com

C.W. Dixey & Son

C.W. Dixey & Son was founded in 1777 by William Fraser. The Dixey family renamed the business G.& C. Dixey in 1824. Its clients have included: Napoleon Bonaparte, Winston Churchill, and Boris Karloff.

Location: 26 Red Lion Street, WC1R 4AG (red, brown)

Website: www.cwdixeyandson.com

Dollond & Aitchison

The achromatic lens was developed by John Dollond (1706-1761).

Isaac Newton became a public scientific figure through his work that produced a better telescope.

The business was acquired by Boots Opticians in 2009 and then rebranded.

Spectacle Wearing

Marie Stopes

Marie Stopes was appalled that her son Harry Stopes-Roe (1924-2014) chose to marry Mary Wallis (1927-2019), a history graduate who wore glasses. The campaigner declared that the couple were quite callous about the wrong to their children, the wrong to my family, and the eugenic crime. She wrote him out of her will. The Stopes-Roes had four children, all of whom wore spectacles.

Location: 61 Marlborough Road, Holloway, N19 4PF. The Clinic for Constructive Birth Control.

David Backhouse 2024