It has been a busy summer season for eyewear model Cubitts. Following scorching on the heels of The Yard – the model’s sprawling new headquarters and optical manufactory in King’s Cross, London – on 30 July 2026 it opens its first Manchester store, concluding a decade-long seek for the right property.
Welcome to Cubitts Manchester
The shop occupies a part of the Victorian constructing that was previously town’s Affleck & Brown division retailer
(Picture credit score: Felix Speller)
Positioned at 16 Smithfield Buildings within the metropolis’s Northern Quarter, it occupies a part of the constructing that was previously Affleck & Brown – a division retailer that operated from the 1860s till its closure in 1973 and was coined the ‘Harrods of the North’.
Native design studio Youth was introduced on board to create an area that displays Manchester as we speak with refined nods to its industrial previous via supplies and objects
(Picture credit score: Felix Speller)
For greater than a century, material was offered right here by the yard and clothes had been made to measure. In the identical area, Cubitts will now measure, match, alter and restore spectacles – it is an unintended parallel however one which the model enjoys.
‘We needed to be within the Northern Quarter, however provided that we may discover a constructing with the historical past and character to justify our arrival,’ says Tom Broughton, who based Cubitts in 2013. ‘Smithfield Buildings felt instantly proper: a spectacle store inside a former draper’s division retailer, in a neighbourhood formed by making, music and impartial commerce.’
Frames are displayed on show stand with vertical metal uprights and rain-textured glass platforms
(Picture credit score: Felix Speller)
As Cubitts grows – Manchester is its twenty first store worldwide and nineteenth within the UK – Broughton understands the significance of making retail areas which have a transparent model DNA, whereas additionally reflecting their distinctive environment.
‘It was vital that Cubitts Manchester was designed in Manchester, and never simply deposited right here’
Tom Broughton, founding father of Cubitts
‘Every Cubitts retailer tries to belong to its neighbourhood,’ Broughton tells Wallpaper*. ‘We begin with the constructing, the road and the individuals who give the world its character, fairly than imposing the identical design in all places. What ties them collectively is “precision with soul”: precision as a result of optics is technical, exacting and vital; soul as a result of it’s in the end deeply human too. Whereas every website is completely different, every tries to be the antithesis of a medical optician.’
The show stand’s textured glass platforms solid damaged, watery shadows beneath the spotlights
(Picture credit score: Felix Speller)
In Manchester, the interiors come courtesy of native studio Youth – the designers behind the just lately opened Cotswolds lodge Hyll – who needed to create an area that respects the constructing’s previous however displays town’s future.
‘Our method for Cubitts was to create an area that displays the place town goes: assured, progressive and culturally related’
Liam McGroarty, Youth
‘Having grown up creatively and professionally in Manchester, we’ve at all times been acutely aware of how town represents itself via design,’ the studio’s co-founder Liam McGroarty informed Wallpaper*. ‘Too usually, Manchester is outlined by acquainted, clichéd references to its musical and industrial previous, which may restrict how its future is imagined. Our method for Cubitts was to create an area that displays the place town goes: assured, progressive and culturally related, whereas reinterpreting its historical past via a recent lens that feels related to the folks shaping town as we speak.’
A faceted oak counter acts as a social point of interest on the coronary heart of the area
(Picture credit score: Felix Speller)
Within the retailer, this interprets as exact steelwork and rain-textured glass show items that sit in deliberate distinction to the unrefined end of the encompassing plaster partitions. ‘The crafted metalwork reframes town’s industrial heritage in a recent means, whereas reflecting the precision of the Cubitts model,’ explains McGroarty.
Made to show as much as 72 optical frames and sun shades, the show case’s textured glass platforms solid damaged, watery shadows beneath the spotlights. Echoing this theme of contrasts, modern steel-frames wrap the hand-dimpled mirrors, which return a intentionally imperfect reflection.
‘Whereas every website is completely different, every tries to be the antithesis of a medical optician’
Tom Broughton, founding father of Cubitts
Elsewhere, divided by waxed-cotton curtains, there’s a devoted repairs desk, an optometric room and a bespoke session space – all companies which might be historically relegated to back-of-shop however right here, like at Cubitts’ King’s Cross HQ, are made seen. On the coronary heart of the area, a faceted oak counter acts as a social point of interest designed to be gathered round fairly than a transactional barrier. A turntable is built-in into the joinery, introducing a refined musical reference that additionally creates a possibility to have interaction with neighbouring document shops.
Amongst different objects, a pair of modernist sandstone figures by sculptor Richard Perry had been rigorously chosen to make the shop really feel ‘collected fairly than adorned’
(Picture credit score: Felix Speller)
To make the shop really feel collected fairly than adorned, the group sourced artworks and objects that mirror traditions of tailoring, trade, modernism and shut guide work. An authentic portray by Francis Hoyland depicts a seamstress at work, whereas a Cubist gouache by Marcel Gille reveals a forge employee. A pair of modernist sandstone figures by sculptor Richard Perry sit in entrance of a speaker, whereas a classic revolving bookcase – initially made by Manchester cabinetmakers Goodall, Lamb and Heighway utilizing timber salvaged from HMS Foudroyant – holds a collection of publications from Manchester’s The Modernist.
Items had been chosen to mirror traditions of tailoring, trade, modernism and shut guide work
(Picture credit score: Felix Speller)
‘It was vital that Cubitts Manchester was designed in Manchester, and never simply deposited right here,’ displays Broughton. ‘The result’s considerate, industrial and heat, with references to town embedded in its supplies, objects and music fairly than introduced from the partitions.’
Founder Tom Broughton says Cubitts’ shops have fun ‘precision with soul’
(Picture credit score: Felix Speller)
(Picture credit score: Felix Speller)
(Picture credit score: Felix Speller)
(Picture credit score: Felix Speller)
(Picture credit score: Felix Speller)
