Borough Optometry Clinic: Cubitts £50 Exam in a Mission Hall

Cubitts Borough is at 9 Park Street, Borough, London SE1 9AB, and it offers a routine eye exam for £50 and an enhanced OCT exam for £75. The shop opens Monday to Saturday from 10am to 6pm and on Sunday from 11am to 5pm, so a weekend appointment is possible. This is a working optometry clinic inside a frame shop, with a vivid yellow front that is hard to miss.

The Cubitts site describes the Borough store as Grade II-listed and says the building was formerly a mission hall, a potato merchant and a banana wholesaler. The bright yellow exterior is a nod to that banana past. Park Street is a short walk from the busy market streets of Borough, but the shop sits on a calmer stretch where you can stand outside and look at the front for a minute before going in.

Inside, the designers took their cue from the building's religious past. The shelving is based on ancient ziggurats, with a bold primary colour palette, and the angular point of sale refers to the architecture of Modernist churches. At the back there is a confessional window where penitents can hand over broken frames to be fixed. A donation box nearby takes old frames, which the team polishes and recycles for people in need.

There are two exams on the Cubitts exam page. The routine eye examination costs £50 and lasts 40 minutes, testing eyesight, pressure, visual acuity and retinal health, and the optometrist tailors it to your lifestyle and medical history. The enhanced OCT eye examination costs £75 and lasts 60 minutes. It includes everything in the routine exam plus mapping and measuring, with 3D images of your optic nerves and all layers of your retinae.

Choose the routine exam if you simply need a new prescription and have no history of eye disease. The OCT exam is the one to book if you are due a deeper look, for example because you spend long days on screens and want a baseline scan, or because a relative has had glaucoma. Both are quoted on the shop's own pages, and the Borough page lists both services, so you can pick when you book.

The shop sets two firm limits. Exams are for people aged 16 or older, and the store does not provide exams under the NHS or contact lens checks. If you need a contact lens fitting or a child's test, this is the wrong door, and you should book elsewhere before you travel. Everything else on the services list is open to walk-in visitors: frame repairs and adjustments, lens changes and made-to-measure consultations.

Book the exam rather than turning up, because a 40 or 60 minute slot has to be held for you. The Borough page has a book eye examination button and a separate made-to-measure consultation button, so do not mix the two up. If you want both a test and a bespoke frame, the sensible order is the exam first, then a second visit once you know your prescription and whether you are choosing a lens that suits it.

Bring your current glasses and any contact lenses you wear, even though contact lens checks are not offered, because the optometrist will want to see what you have been seeing through. Add a short list of medicines and any family eye history. Sunday is the quietest day to think about frames, since the shop opens an hour later at 11am and closes at 5pm, so allow the morning for the exam and the afternoon for choosing.

The Cubitts Borough collection is four frames inspired by iconic residents, both real and fictional, of the Borough: including Park, Rye and Snowsfields. They give the shop a local identity that the exam itself does not need, but they are a good starting point if you want something that belongs to the neighbourhood.

Our advice is to treat the frame choice as a separate decision from the prescription. Get the exam done, ask the optometrist whether anything about your prescription limits the lens or the shape, and then take your time on the shelves. If nothing fits on the day, you still have the written prescription from the exam, and the shop will adjust whatever you buy later at the same counter that handles repairs.

After a 40 minute exam your eyes may feel a little tired, so a slow walk is better than a screen. Borough Market is close to Park Street, and the cathedral at Southwark is a quiet place to sit. Head north toward the river and you reach the Thames path, where you can look at distant buildings, which is a good way to rest your focus after the exam room. Skip the busy market stalls at lunchtime if you do not enjoy crowds.

If you booked the 60 minute OCT exam, give yourself a gap before heading anywhere that needs sharp reading, such as a train timetable. Most people feel normal straight away, but there is no harm in a coffee first. A route along the river toward Tate Modern is easy to follow, and you can come back through the side streets of Southwark to the station without crossing a main road more than once.

Shop: Cubitts Borough, 9 Park Street, Borough, London SE1 9AB. Email: borough@cubitts.com. Hours: Monday to Saturday 10am to 6pm, Sunday 11am to 5pm. Routine eye examination £50 for 40 minutes; enhanced OCT eye examination £75 for 60 minutes. Ages 16 and over; no NHS exams and no contact lens checks. Accessibility: the shop is wheelchair accessible, excluding the eye examination room, so ask the team how they can help if stairs are a concern.

Plan B if the slot you want is full: Cubitts has another London practice at 68 Jermyn Street, SW1Y 6NY, which offers routine exams Monday to Saturday from 10am to 6pm. That shop is closed on Sundays, so a Sunday test only works at Borough. Both addresses use the same booking page on the Cubitts website, which keeps the choice simple.