‘Precision with soul’: Cubitts sets up shop in Manchester with a store that celebrates the city

It's been a busy summer for eyewear brand Cubitts. Following hot on the heels of The Yard – the brand's sprawling new headquarters and optical manufactory in King’s Cross, London – on 30 July 2026 it opens its first Manchester shop, concluding a decade-long search for the perfect property.

Welcome to Cubitts Manchester

Located at 16 Smithfield Buildings in the city's Northern Quarter, it occupies part of the building that was formerly Affleck & Brown – a department store that operated from the 1860s until its closure in 1973 and was coined the 'Harrods of the North'.

For more than a century, cloth was sold here by the yard and garments were made to measure. In the same space, Cubitts will now measure, fit, adjust and repair spectacles – it's an accidental parallel but one that the brand enjoys.

'We wanted to be in the Northern Quarter, but only if we could find a building with the history and character to justify our arrival,' says Tom Broughton, who founded Cubitts in 2013. 'Smithfield Buildings felt immediately right: a spectacle shop inside a former draper’s department store, in a neighbourhood shaped by making, music and independent trade.'

As Cubitts grows – Manchester is its 21st shop worldwide and 19th in the UK – Broughton understands the importance of creating retail spaces that have a clear brand DNA, while also reflecting their unique surroundings.

'Each Cubitts store tries to belong to its neighbourhood,' Broughton tells Wallpaper*. 'We start with the building, the street and the people who give the area its character, rather than imposing the same design everywhere. What ties them together is “precision with soul”: precision because optics is technical, exacting and important; soul because it is ultimately deeply human too. While each site is different, each tries to be the antithesis of a clinical optician.'

In Manchester, the interiors come courtesy of local studio Youth – the designers behind the recently opened Cotswolds hotel Hyll – who wanted to create a space that respects the building's past but reflects the city's future.

'Having grown up creatively and professionally in Manchester, we have always been conscious of how the city represents itself through design,' the studio's co-founder Liam McGroarty told Wallpaper*. 'Too often, Manchester is defined by familiar, clichéd references to its musical and industrial past, which can limit how its future is imagined. Our approach for Cubitts was to create a space that reflects where the city is going: confident, progressive and culturally relevant, while reinterpreting its history through a contemporary lens that feels relevant to the people shaping the city today.'

In the store, this translates as precise steelwork and rain-textured glass display units that sit in deliberate contrast to the unrefined finish of the surrounding plaster walls. 'The crafted metalwork reframes the city’s industrial heritage in a contemporary way, while reflecting the precision of the Cubitts brand,' explains McGroarty.

Made to display up to 72 optical frames and sunglasses, the display case's textured glass platforms cast broken, watery shadows beneath the spotlights. Echoing this theme of contrasts, sleek steel-frames wrap the hand-dimpled mirrors, which return a deliberately imperfect reflection.

Elsewhere, divided by waxed-cotton curtains, there is a dedicated repairs desk, an optometric room and a bespoke consultation area – all services that are traditionally relegated to back-of-shop but here, like at Cubitts’ King’s Cross HQ, are made visible. At the heart of the space, a faceted oak counter acts as a social focal point designed to be gathered around rather than a transactional barrier. A turntable is integrated into the joinery, introducing a subtle musical reference that also creates an opportunity to engage with neighbouring record stores.

To make the store feel collected rather than decorated, the team sourced artworks and objects that reflect traditions of tailoring, industry, modernism and close manual work. An original painting by Francis Hoyland depicts a seamstress at work, while a Cubist gouache by Marcel Gille shows a forge worker. A pair of modernist sandstone figures by sculptor Richard Perry sit in front of a speaker, while a vintage revolving bookcase – originally made by Manchester cabinetmakers Goodall, Lamb and Heighway using timber salvaged from HMS Foudroyant – holds a selection of publications from Manchester’s The Modernist.

'It was important that Cubitts Manchester was designed in Manchester, and not just deposited here,' reflects Broughton. 'The result is thoughtful, industrial and warm, with references to the city embedded in its materials, objects and music rather than announced from the walls.'