Echoes of the Past: Grand designs

A copy of the Manufacturing Optician supplement from fifty years ago offers a comprehensive take on setting up a spectacle factory in the sixties.

Author A Limburg envisaged handling 1,500 to 2,000 jobs each week. Jobs would flow through glazing, surfacing and frame shops within a facility covering around 5,000 square feet. ‘This is, of course, the advantage of just dreaming,’ Limburg quips.

The office section of the factory was designed to be ‘as far as possible from the noisier section of the works’.

In the August 1965 issue, Limburg continues the ‘Grand Designs’ style planning with a run-down of where the rest room and toilets might be situated. A maximum number of windows would be built in to bounce natural light around and create an airy atmosphere, which is no less of a priority for optical businesses on the high street.