Frequently asked questions

Forty-five minutes, and an hour the first time you come, because the history takes longer than anything else in the appointment. Shorter visits exist for particular things — a contact lens follow-up is twenty minutes and an adjustment is fifteen — and every appointment type on this site says its own length before you book it.

Yes, at the end of the appointment, in writing, without asking, and including the pupillary distance that a lens cannot be made without. It is yours and you may take it anywhere. A practice that makes this difficult is telling you something about itself.

Only if there is a reason, and you will be told before the drops go in rather than after. If they are used, plan on a few hours of blurred near vision and light sensitivity, and do not plan on driving home. Booking the dilation as part of the appointment adds about twenty-five minutes to it.

Yes, for glasses, as long as it is current. For contact lenses we need a contact lens prescription specifically — a spectacle prescription cannot be converted into one — and we will not supply against an expired one without seeing the eye.

Every appointment type on this site publishes its fee before you book. Frames, lenses and coatings are priced separately from each other so you can see what you are choosing, and nothing is ordered before you have been told the price of the whole job.

Ring rather than book online, and describe it. Sight lost suddenly, a curtain across the vision, a shower of new floaters with flashes, or a painful red eye with vision that has dropped means an emergency room today rather than an appointment here. Anything else, we keep time free every day.

At about six months, again before school, and then yearly while they are growing. A child does not report blurred vision because it is the only vision they have had, and a school screening is not an examination — it looks at one thing and passes children with several others.

No. Everything in the frame room is one of our own four collections, which is why there is no logo on any temple and why the prices are what they are. If you want a particular label we are the wrong shop and will say so rather than talk you round.

Usually, and there is no charge for looking at whether it will survive the glazing. Old acetate goes brittle and will sometimes break somewhere other than where it is held, so we will tell you honestly when we think a frame will not take it rather than take the money and hope.

It can estimate a lens power and it cannot look at your eyes. Glaucoma, diabetic changes and a retinal tear all affect nothing that an online test measures at the stage where something can be done about them. Use one knowing what it is.

For the frame room, adjustments and repairs, always — no appointment and no charge. For an examination, ring first: we hold time each day for eyes that cannot wait, and we would rather give it to somebody who needs it than to whoever arrived.

About a week for most single vision, and up to a fortnight for varifocals or a strong prescription in a thinner material. You will be told the date when the order is placed, and rung when they are in rather than left to wonder.