10 October 2025
An independent optical practice in the City of London is on a mission to provide eye care to people experiencing homelessness within its local community.
Bansri Shah, a dispensing optician and practice director of Eyelink Opticians, a Hakim Group independent practice, in St Paul’s, is offering eye care and spectacles free of charge to people experiencing homelessness who she initially met at a festival in September.
Last month Shah and a colleague attended Street Fest – an annual event organised by Streets Kitchen, which is held in Finsbury Park and provides support and services to homeless people.
During the one-day festival, the duo spoke to around 80 people, performed vision checks, and handed out around 40 pairs of ready readers and frames.
Shah spoke to people she met about the importance of eye care, what they could be eligible to receive, and gave out leaflets to educate them about eye health and eye conditions.
She said: “We wanted to use it as an opportunity to make eye care accessible to everyone, including those who might not visit an optician otherwise.”
The practice director explained that exhibiting at the festival had been serendipitous, arising from a conversation with her nephew, Shahil Goodka, who has been volunteering at Streets Kitchen for over four years.
When he mentioned Street Fest, Shah expressed an interest in getting involved and spoke to organisers, who already had dentistry and other healthcare professionals available at the event, but not optometry.
“We didn’t know what to expect,” Shah told OT, adding: “We took anything that we felt could be helpful – ready readers, frames, dry drops, an eye chart.”
She invited those who she spoke to who required eye care to attend Eyelink Opticians for a full sight test and frames, free of charge.
Shah told OT that the sight test in practice could be done at “any day or time,” and that double appointments were booked in to allow for OCT scans and Optomap.
Eight patients were booked in at the practice during the festival, but Shah acknowledged that the distance from Finsbury Park to the practice has been a barrier for some people attending.
Shah recalls one gentleman she met at the festival who has since visited Eyelink Opticians, walking two hours to receive eye care. The patient had been made homeless in the last six months as a result of losing his job due to poor vision.
The patient had reduced sight in his right eye, Shah explained, adding that he had been turned away from A&E because he had no address and no referral.
The patient was seen by Eyelink Opticians optometrist, Marcus Hosken, who shared: “When I examined him, it became clear he’d suffered a historical retinal detachment in the right eye, which sadly was too far gone to repair. However, he was also short-sighted in his left eye, so we were able to make him up a pair of glasses that restored his vision and will hopefully allow him to return to work.”
In November, Shah and her team will visit Streets Kitchen’s Camden facility to provide eye care and spectacles from its medical room.
Shah reflected: “Vision affects every part of daily life – from confidence to safety – and good vision can change someone’s life. As an independent optician, we’re part of the local community and it’s important to us to give back and make eye care inclusive.”
She added: “Seeing how something as small as a free eye test can change someone’s life reminds us why we do what we do – and motivates us to keep reaching more people.”
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