Cubitts opens 13,000 sq ft King's Cross headquarters and optical manufactory

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.