The well known opticians Black & Lizars celebrate 185 years in the business this week.
Today in their flagship Frederick Street store they had cake which Managing Director Geraldine Wood is holding aloft in our photo above. Wood was appointed MD earlier this year and has been with the company almost 12 years.
The store is fully accessible with a ramp outside and lift inside to take any customers with limited mobility to their examination rooms. Children are not forgotten as they have their own dedicated space downstairs where they can be assessed for their new glasses.
The company has a venerable history. It supplied cameras to tea magnate Sir Thomas Lipton and one of the inventors of the television John Logie Baird, as well as photographic supplies for Queen Victoria and the Queen of the Belgians .
But Black & Lizars is also a company which has always looked to the future, and it will also be celebrating its position at the forefront of optical technology, as a leader in ultra-wide retinal scanners and Nikon spectacle lenses for the digital age
This is the story of a remarkable Scottish company, which has been satisfying customer demands for nearly two centuries and now has two dozen stores across Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
