FAD NEWS: Cubitts opens first Manchester store. British spectacle maker Cubitts has opened its first Manchester store, taking over a historic unit in Smithfield Buildings on Hilton Street in the city's Northern Quarter. The new opening marks Cubitts' 21st shop worldwide and its 19th in the UK, following the launch earlier this year of The Yard, the company's headquarters and optical manufactory in King's Cross, London. Rather than rushing into Manchester, Cubitts says it spent almost a decade searching for the right location, waiting until it found a building that reflected its approach to craftsmanship, repair and longevity. The new shop occupies part of the former Affleck & Brown department store, a landmark business dating back to the 1860s that once occupied the entire city block and was widely known as the "Harrods of the North". Designed in collaboration with Manchester architecture and design studio YOUTH, the space has been conceived first and foremost as a working optician. Alongside displays of optical frames and sunglasses, it includes a dedicated repairs desk, optometry room and bespoke consultation space, reinforcing Cubitts' commitment to repairing spectacles rather than replacing them. The interiors draw on Manchester's industrial and manufacturing heritage through materials including sanded steel, textured glass, waxed cotton and oak. Original artworks, including paintings by Francis Hoyland and Marcel Gille, sit alongside sandstone sculptures by Richard Perry, while a revolving bookcase crafted by Manchester furniture makers Goodall, Lamb and Heighway from salvaged HMS Foudroyant timber houses publications from The Modernist. Together, the objects give the space the feeling of a carefully assembled workshop rather than a conventional retail interior. Music has also been treated as part of the architecture rather than background atmosphere. Instead of relying on familiar Manchester references, Cubitts has curated a programme spanning soul, electronic music, post-punk, jazz and experimental recordings chosen for mood rather than postcode. Speaking about the opening, Cubitts founder Tom Broughton said: "Fadmagazine has been looking for the right home in Manchester for almost a decade. Fadmagazine wanted to be in the Northern Quarter, but only if Fadmagazine could find a building with the history and character to justify its arrival. Smithfield Buildings felt immediately right: a spectacle shop inside a former draper's department store, in a neighbourhood shaped by making, music and independent trade. Manchester does not need another London brand telling it how interesting it is. Fadmagazine is simply pleased to finally be here, and hope to make ourselves useful." Alongside its full range of optical frames and sunglasses, the Manchester shop offers eye examinations, repairs, reglazing, made-to-measure frames and bespoke spectacle consultations. Cubitts also revealed that a collection of Manchester-exclusive frames is currently in development. Cubitts, 16 Smithfield Buildings, Hilton St, Manchester M4 1NB All photography Felix Speller

Cubitts opens 13,000 sq ft King's Cross headquarters and optical manufactory. TheIndustry.fashion 25 June 2026 British spectacle maker Cubitts today unveils its 13,000 sq ft headquarters and optical manufactory in King's Cross, consolidating design, production, glazing, repair, bespoke consultation and training in a single central London site. Cubitts has described the new space, called The Yard, as the only spectacle-making workshop in central London. The site occupies former Victorian stables once linked to the nearby Crosse & Blackwell vinegar brewery at 6 Blundell Street, just off Caledonian Road, and was designed by 51 Architecture. The move formalises an integrated operating model that Cubitts has built around repairability, craft and owned physical space. After years working from offices, railway arches, and improvised workshops, the brand now houses its full team, manufacturing operations and client-facing services in one permanent location. The Yard's working optical workshop uses five-axis CNC machines for frame production, with finishing and assembly carried out by hand. An on-site optical laboratory features next-generation glazing and milling equipment that, according to Cubitts, is designed to reduce water and energy consumption. A bespoke consultation room allows clients to commission custom frames. Master spectacle maker Lawrence Jenkin, who originally taught Cubitts founder Tom Broughton the craft of frame making, will also have his workshop at the site. Jenkin will work alongside Cubitts' makers, supporting skills training in a trade that has largely disappeared from central London. Tom Broughton said the site reflects the brand's roots in the area. "Cubitts has always been rooted in King's Cross. We began on my kitchen table in Cubitt Street and have moved through a series of increasingly unlikely spaces - offices, arches, borrowed corners - but never quite found our home," he said. "The Yard at Blundell Street is that home. Just off the Cally, in the shadow of Pentonville Prison, it feels very King's Cross: a working building for a working part of London." The building has retained its original London stock brick, cobbled floors, pine boards and Victorian stable fabric. "We've stripped away the paint and the lipstick, and let the building speak for itself," Broughton said. The headquarters also houses a training academy for the company's opticians and makers, along with Cubitts' growing archive of historically significant spectacles spanning more than two centuries. A commercial kitchen and communal dining space will host talks, suppers, exhibitions and industry events. A newly commissioned exterior mural by artist David Shrigley accompanies the opening, giving the building a public-facing identity and extending Cubitts' relationship with artists and makers. The streets around Clerkenwell and King's Cross were once home to many of Britain's spectacle makers, according to Cubitts. The Yard positions itself as a return of that craft to the area, now built around contemporary manufacturing and an in-house service model that runs from design through to fitting and repair.