Long admired for its historical importance, cultural prowess and beautiful Gothic architecture, Edinburgh is one of the world’s most popular tourist destinations. A lesser known fact is that Edinburgh is also home to some of the UK’s best opticians, with a number of Optician Awards winners located in the town.
‘Edinburgh is a beautiful, vibrant place,’ says Steven Hislop, company director of The Opticians at Marchmont. ‘It’s an affluent city, with lots of students and families, and is especially nice when the sun is shining.’
Hislop opened his practice in 2009 after a career as a professional footballer for clubs Ross County and Inverness Caledonian Thistle. ‘Things have gone really well so far, we have grown year-on-year and I thoroughly enjoy my job,’ he says. Hislop employs an optometrist to do exams, while he mans the front desk and does the accounts.
The practice, located in the residential area of Marchmont, caters to a ‘fair mix’ of patients but especially children and families. As in many other places, there has been a general trend towards acetate in recent years and the designers that use it. ‘My most popular frames are Tom Ford by a mile,’ says Hislop.
Lisa Brown, DO at RC Cunnings Opticians, agrees there has been an uptake in the demand for acetate. Her practice, with one testing room, OCT and a fundus camera, has been in town since 1975. Brown tries to ‘inject colour into the designs as people are more excited and comfortable about wearing spectacles nowadays’.
Brown says the practice has an added focus on contact lenses, not precluding good quality spectacles. ‘Contact lenses are given their place alongside specs and are not just an afterthought.’ Although catering to a mixed clientele, Brown says their best customers are aged 50 to 60, and are ‘being more adventurous in their designs’.
Michael O’Kane (pictured), director of Specsavers Morningside, says people in Edinburgh are ‘discerning, appreciate good customer service, and yearn for family-friendly, community driven businesses’.
Opening in Edinburgh in 2009 O’Kane’s practice has done exceptionally well. ‘Since then, the store has seen tremendous growth with an annual turnover in excess of £1.2m, three testing rooms, 17 staff and numerous accolades,’ he says.
Among many other advanced services the store offers, O’Kane says it also provides ‘OCT, FDT, autorefractor, keratmoetry and pupil size measurements, IOP & pachymetry all before the patient enters the test room.’
Who’s in town
Total: 17
Independents: 10
Multiples: 7
Average costs
Routine free eye examination costs are covered by the Scottish government NHS budget.
Population
Population: 488,050
Community eye care
NHS Lothian does not have any specific local contracts outside General Ophthalmic Services.
Health and affluence
- The average house price in Edinburgh is £265,361 (Zoopla), compared with a UK average of £223,257 (Land Registry, 2017).
- Edinburgh has an average salary of £28,010, with the UK average being £27,271 (Payscale, 2018).
- In Edinburgh, it is estimated that 17,980 people are at risk of or living with sight loss due to late stage wet AMD (RNIB Sight Loss Data Tool)
- The number of people at risk of or living with sight loss due to diabetic retinopathy in Edinburgh is 10,250 (RNIB).
- By 2030, there is estimated to be a 22% increase in the number of people living with glaucoma in Edinburgh – compared to a 10% increase across Scotland for the same period (RNIB).
Fact file
Edinburgh Castle rests atop an extinct volcano that rose around 350 million years ago. The castle dates back to at least the 12th century, but archaeologists estimate humans have occupied the site since the Iron Age in the 2nd century.
Edinburgh has more trees per capita than any other city in the UK.
Edinburgh and has more listed buildings than anywhere else in the world.
Held in the city throughout August every year, the Edinburgh Festival is the largest arts festival in the world. The number of tickets sold for events in Edinburgh during festival month are exceeded only by the football World Cup and the Olympics.
Do you want to work in Edinburgh? Go to Optician Jobs to see all the available jobs in the area