CONTACT LENS HISTORY

THE LONDON PIONEERS - WHERE THEY WERE

Much of  UK contact lens development occurred within a small area of central London, in and around Harley Street and Wigmore Street, traditionally homes of the great names in ophthalmology and dispensing optics.

Key to colours and numbers

 

Red = Ophthalmologists

Green = Dispensing opticians

Blue = Others

 

1 48 Welbeck Street Thomas Young - 1820-1829
2 39 Wigmore Street Keeler's - Arthur Poole - fitted lenses 1948-1964
3 47 Wigmore Street Keeler's - ArthurPoole - Fitted lenses 1938-1948
4 21-27 Marylebone Lane Keeler's - Arthur Poole - fitted lenses from 1964 
5 19 Wigmore Street Dixey - from 1954
6 114 Marylebone Lane Dixey - Winter - from 1939
7 16 Wigmore Street Clement Clarke - Edmund Plaice - lenses from 1937
8 18 Cavendish Square Hamblin - Josef Dallos and Dick  Smellie - from 1937
9 9 Wigmore Street Hamblin - Josef Dallos - 1937
10 31 New Cavendish Street Hamblin - Dick Smellie - 1927 and 1957
11 27 Harley Street Frederick Williamson-Noble - 1930s
12 49 Harley Street Andrew Rugg-Gunn - 1930s
13 78 Harley Street Herman Treissman - 1940s
14 80 Harley Street Jonathan Kersley - 1970s-1990s
15 96 Harley Street Ida Mann - 1920s-1949
16 12 Wimpole Street Frederick Ridley - 1940s
17 23 Wimpole Street Greeves - 1930s
18 17 Devonshire Place Josef Dallos - 1964-1979
19 7 Devonshire Street Freddie Burnett Hodd - from 1960
20 Siddon's Lane Nissel & Co. - 1946
21 139/140 Park Lane Keith Clifford Hall - 1945-1964
22 Holborn Moorfields Contact Lens Clinic - from 1948

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