Cubitts opens The Yard, a new optical manufactory in King’s Cross

Cubitts has turned a restored Victorian mews in King’s Cross into a working argument for slower, better made luxury. The brand’s new 13,000-square-foot site at 6 Blundell Street, called The Yard, opened on 25 June 2026 as its first dedicated headquarters and, Cubitts says, the only spectacle-making workshop in central London.

The point is not just spectacle, but infrastructure. The Yard folds frame making, lens production, glazing, repairs, bespoke consultation, design, training and exhibition into a single address, making the production chain visible in a way few fashion-adjacent businesses ever do. Cubitts was founded in King’s Cross in 2013 with the belief that spectacles should be loved, not tolerated, and the new space pushes that idea into a full business model built around transparency, durability and keeping customers in the fold longer.

The building itself gives the project its romance. Once part of the Crosse & Blackwell Vinegar Works in the 1880s, the site began life as a Victorian mews and stable complex before becoming offices in 1985. Cubitts and 51 Architecture preserved the bones of the place, including exposed brickwork, original cobbled flooring, pine floors and roof beams, so the manufacture feels rooted in London rather than imported into it. A large David Shrigley mural on the exterior wall gives the site a contemporary edge that keeps it from reading like a museum piece.

Inside, the offer is as commercial as it is cultural. Cubitts already handles in-house repairs and refurbishing for broken hinges, snapped frames and scratches, and The Yard brings those services closer to the customer at a moment when repair is increasingly a differentiator, not an afterthought. The brand’s bespoke frames are handmade in King’s Cross to exact measurements, with prices starting from £650 with lenses included. Cubitts also runs spectacle-making classes at the site, which makes the building part factory, part training academy and part storefront for its craft-first message.

City A.M. said the headquarters will house around 50 staff, with room to potentially double headcount over the next three years. That kind of expansion matters in a district where heritage, footfall and brand narrative all collide, and it suggests Cubitts is betting that optical luxury can grow not by distancing itself from production, but by putting the workshop back on view.