Cubitts expands to Scotland

The eyewear brand, Cubitts, has expanded to Scotland with the opening of two sites in Edinburgh.

The new practices, Cubitts Old Town, West Bow, and Cubitts New Town, York Place, are the brand’s first sites outside of England and take the total number of UK stores to 15.

Both sites will display the brand’s full collection of frames and bespoke design service, while Cubitts New Town will also act as a base for the brand’s optical coherence tomography eye examinations.

The brand has designed two exclusive frames for each new location, with the bold round styles of ‘Elder’ and ‘Anderson’ available at Cubitts New Town, and the classic 60s style ‘Cowgate’ and futuristic aviator, ‘Bow,’ available at Cubitts Old Town.

Tom Broughton, founder of Cubitts, explained: “We’ve been trying to acquire the beautiful curving site at 88 – 92 West Bow for over six years.”

But the company knew it would be difficult to offer all services within the uniquely shaped building, and so began looking for a second site.

The secondary location, 1 York Place, “offered enough space to bring our approach to spectacle making, eye examinations, repairs and services to Scotland for the first time,” Broughton said. “Now we have the best of both worlds – services in the New Town, spectacles in the Old Town – in two distinct but equally remarkable buildings, each with a rich history.”

Cubitts New Town, York Place, will host Cubitts’ eye care services, including OCT

The interior design of the New Town location reflects the historic architectural features of the building, with references to the Great Hall library at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, while the Old Town site draws inspiration from the architect, Peter Womersly.

Cubitts has partnered with several independent Edinburgh businesses and organisations to celebrate the launch.

Local tailors, Walker and Slater, will display a curated selection of Cubitts’ frames in their stores, and a selection of books from Golden Hare Books will be displayed in the Cubitts New Town shopfront.

Cubitts will work with jewellery and silversmith students at the Edinburgh College of Art on a live design brief, with winning designs displayed alongside frames in the practices, while Edinburgh Weavers will launch a reproduction of one of its modernist designs as a lens cloth. The lens cloth will be available exclusively in Cubitts’ Edinburgh sites, with proceeds going to Alzheimer’s Society.

Pictured: The new site of Cubitts Old Town, West Bow.