St. James Park, Newcastle United's football stadium looms over the North East's largest city. It has been the stage for some of the best footballers to grace the sport, including local heroes Paul Gascoigne, Peter Beardsley and Alan Shearer.
Famed for its history of Victorian innovations in mining, railways and shipbuilding, in recent times Newcastle has become a highly respected university town and host to a thriving nightlife culture.
It is also home to dozens of high street and suburban independents and multiples. Optician spoke to John Davidson, director and principle optometrist at Querido & Davidson Opticians, serving the community just outside the city centre.
[CaptionComponent="2411"]Davidson said: ‘Newcastle is a fairly small city in many ways and it makes it a really nice place to live and work because you get to know a lot of people. This can be great for practice building. However, the spending cuts made since the recession have hit the city with waves of redundancies as employment in the North East is now very dominated by civil service work, government agencies and call centres.
‘It is therefore hard to survive as a practice that caters for just one niche. Here, it’s more sustainable to offer a wide range of services and budgets to cater for the different income levels around you. There were a number of very high class designer opticians that opened in the city centre within the last five to 10 years and a lot of them closed as there was not enough business to go around.’
[CaptionComponent="2412"]Elaine Davis, practice manager of Robson & Co Independent Optometrists, based in the city centre, echoed Davidson’s views.
Davis said: ‘There is a huge, varied market coming from across Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, County Durham and beyond. You don't want to turn anyone away, therefore it is important that we try to offer a wide range of services.’
Approximately 70% of Robson’s patients are consulted on the NHS, with the majority of NHS work being the over-60s.
Meanwhile, Davidson said 50% of Querido & Davidson’s patients come into the city from surrounding towns and described the majority as, ‘middle class, mostly over-50, alongside the children of those families and a lot of contact lens wearers within that group.’
Davis added that patients in Newcastle are impressed by value and quality of frames, rather than prices and designer names. Robson’s offer a range including recognised brands such as Calvin Klein and Barbour, alongside highly regarded frames brands, Lindberg, ProDesign and Skaga.
‘We have patients who regularly pay £500+ for their spectacles,’ said Davis, ‘They are more concerned about value, rather than price, and are willing to pay extra for a special product or an excellent service. People in Newcastle appreciate the quality of an individual varifocal or a custom-made frame. We don't offer frames that have a "designer" name on them but are of poor build quality.’
Despite the competitive urban market the independents take every opportunity to support one another’s businesses, according to Davidson.
He added: ‘Myself and a number of other practices in the area meet and share business ideas a couple of times every year. Someone can always have an idea that helps you think about ways that you can manage things to make the situation better.’
[CaptionComponent="2413"]Fun facts
• Shipbuilding in Newcastle began in 1293 and it became the UK's third largest shipbuilder
• Stottie cake or stotty is a type of bread that originated in North East England. Common fillings include ham and pease pudding
• Famous celebrity Geordies include Jimmy Nail, Cheryl Cole (pictured), Sting and Ant & Dec
• ‘Newkie Brown’ – the ale that originated in the city is the best-selling imported beer in the USA
• The law says that the freemen of the city still have the right to graze cattle in ‘the Town Moor,’ lying immediately north of the city centre
Who’s in town
Total: 8
Independents: 5
Multiples: 3
Average costs
Prices for an eye examination in Newcastle city centre, among eight practices contacted, ranged from £22 to £38 with digital retinography. The average cost for a basic eye exam was £25.25.
Population
Estimated total pop – 317,849
[CaptionComponent="2414"]Community eye care
According to the Locsu Atlas Map of Optical Variation, the Northumberland, Tyne and Wear Local Optical Committee has secured contracts for glaucoma repeat readings, cataract referral and children’s vision with NHS Newcastle and Gateshead CCG.
Health and affluence
• 7,300 people living with some degree of sight loss in 2011, or 2.61% of the population, expected to increase to 3.01% by 2020 (RNIB sight loss data too)
• Average house price in Newcastle upon Tyne: £123,673 (all property types, Jan 2016, Land Registry)
• Number of NHS sight tests in Newcastle-upon-Tyne during 2012-13: 69,697
• Cost of expenditure on problems of vision per person: £38.91, compared to the national average for England which is, £42.10