{"id":9958,"date":"2026-06-25T09:00:48","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T09:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/angesfinanciers.org\/?p=9958"},"modified":"2026-06-26T15:12:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T15:12:22","slug":"cubitts-first-dedicated-headquarters-take-over-victorian-stable-in-kings-cross","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/angesfinanciers.org\/index.php\/2026\/06\/25\/cubitts-first-dedicated-headquarters-take-over-victorian-stable-in-kings-cross\/","title":{"rendered":"Cubitts’ first dedicated headquarters take over Victorian stable in King’s Cross"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/div>\n

British firm 51 Architecture<\/a> has converted the former stables of a vinegar brewery into a head office for local eyewear<\/a> brand Cubitts<\/a>, now home to “the only spectacle-making workshop in central London”.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Victorian mews complex, just off Caledonian Road in King’s Cross, originally served as a working stable for the Crosse & Blackwell Vinegar Works in the 1880s before being repurposed to form an office for a publishing house in 1985.<\/p>\n

\"Entrance
51 Architecture has designed a headquarters for Cubitts<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Now, the 13,000-square-foot site has been reimagined as The Yard \u2013 the first dedicated headquarters for Cubitts<\/a>, bringing together its design studio, factory and training academy under one roof.<\/p>\n

Although set in an area that was once home to pioneering British retail opticians like Dollond & Co \u2013 credited with inventing bifocals and achromatic lenses<\/a> \u2013 Cubitts founder Tom Broughton believes its HQ might now be central London’s “only spectacle-making workshop”.<\/p>\n

\"Workshop
The building includes a dedicated spectacle-making workshop<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“As far as I’m aware, Cubitts is the only place in the UK bringing together frame design, frame making, lens glazing, repair, training, and archive under one roof at this scale; and one of only a small handful in the world,” Broughton told Dezeen.<\/p>\n

“It is a revival of the old manufacturing optician: the person who tested your eyes might also understand the lens, grind the glass, make the frame, fit it, adjust it, and repair it.”<\/p>\n

\"Production
A separate room off the main atrium houses the optical laboratory<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Set just north of where Dollond and Co was founded in 1750, the mews originally consisted of two long stable buildings flanking a cobbled courtyard. But in the 1980s, the pair were connected by a post-modern extension, with a skylit atrium used to bridge the gap between them.<\/p>\n

Instead of adding more elements to this architectural cacophony, Cubitts and 51 Architecture<\/a> set about peeling away the many layers of extraneous finishing and carpet that had been added over the building’s 140-year life.<\/p>\n

“We’ve stripped away the paint and the lipstick, and let the building speak for itself,” Broughton explained. “The London stock brick, the Victorian stable fabric, the original cobbled floor, the pine boards, even the 1980s post-modern concrete and purple ducting \u2013 all of it is part of the story.”<\/p>\n

\"Communal
The mezzanine houses a communal canteen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

51 Architecture’s primary task lay in revealing this history while reconfiguring the layout to accommodate the building’s many new functions, 60 staffers and the transformation of glass and plastic into functional spectacles.<\/p>\n

“The building already had a 140-year life when we met,” explained founders Peter Thomas and Catherine du Toit. “At the core of its long and varied life were robust construction decisions that we respected and reframed to clarify and support Cubitts’ brief.”<\/p>\n

“The building fits Cubitts’ vision for a facility under whose roof the whole organisation is able to be together for the first time.”<\/p>\n

\"Stainless-steel
It comes complete with a stainless steel kitchen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At the centre of the plan, in the light-filled double-height atrium, the studio positioned the workshop, with rows of light wooden workstations where craftsmen finish and assemble glasses by hand.<\/p>\n

51 Architecture buffed back the lower half of the whitewashed walls and the central concrete staircase leading up to a mezzanine, revealing the raw brick and concrete.<\/p>\n

And the staircase itself was slightly trimmed back so that Cubitts could fit in its heavy production machinery \u2013 the five-axis CNC machines used for cutting spectacle frames out of acetate sheets, plus the equipment for glazing and milling lenses, housed in the adjoining optical laboratory.<\/p>\n