Which types of prescription lenses do you offer?

Varifocal lenses:

We can supply a full range of varifocal lenses by post as well as in-store - please contact us to place your order if you're unable to visit one of our stores.

Single vision lenses:

A note about lens price surcharges

The majority of our glasses lenses are supplied by Essilor and use their Crizal lens coating. For more information on Essilor products please visit their website at www.essilor.co.uk. In some instances, and depending on the customer's prescription and type of lens requested, we source our lenses from one of a number of other manufacturers, most commonly Kodak, Seiko, Rodenstock, Sola, Jai Kudo, Norville, Hoya, Pentax, Nikon or Zeiss.

We offer four lens types via our website:

• Anti-reflection
• High index ('thinned')
• Sunglass tint
• Photochromic

Other lens types are available on request, including varifocals and bifocals, polarised, and polycarbonate (Airwear) lenses. Please contact us is you can't find the lens type you require on our website.

Anti-reflection lenses (jump to prices) are plastic prescription lenses with an added anti-glare coating to reduce reflection as well as a hard-coating for improved durability. The industry term for this combination of anti-flection and anti-scratch coatings is 'MAR' - the 'Multi Anti Reflection' coating.

Each manufacturer has its own MAR coating, such as Essilor's Crizal Alize and Rodenstock's Solitaire.

These lenses improve both the spectacle wearer's view of the world as well as the world's view of the spectacle wearer (reduced reflection allowing the eyes to be seen more clearly). Reduced glare is also a huge benefit when night driving or sitting in front of a VDU.

Anti-reflection lenses are free of charge with all frames, or £90.00 for a reglaze.

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High index (thin) lenses (jump to prices) are made from higher-density materials than standard plastic lenses, meaning they are both thinner and lighter. "Can I have my lenses thinned down?" is the first question many customers ask, and the answer is a very definite 'Yes'.

Standard lenses have an index of 1.5 (actually, 1.49). The first 'high index' lens is the 1.6, followed by the 1.67 and 1.74 (so the higher the index, the thinner the lens). 1.6 index lenses are a regular spherical design, whereas the 1.67 and 1.74 index lenses are aspheric - meaning they are flatter, and consequently look thinner still.

All of the lenses mentioned above are plastic, though high index lenses are also available in glass - 1.8 and 1.9 index. You'll have noticed that the 1.8 and 1.9 lenses are of a higher index than is available in plastic (the thinnest plastic lens being the 1.74), and as such the thinnest lenses available are indeed glass. That said, we only recommend these for customers who are extremely short-sighted as glass lenses are both heavier and more fragile than plastic.

Since all high index lenses are made of higher density plastic than standard lenses, light struggles harder to pass through high index lenses than it does through standard lenses - and, since what light doesn't pass through the lens (i.e. refract) then reflects off of it, high index lenses are more prone to reflections. And, since customers' second most common question is "can I have anti-reflection lenses?", all of the high index lenses we supply come with an anti-reflection coating as standard.

Customers' third most common question is "can my lenses be scratch resistant?"; our plastic high index lenses also have an anti-scratch coating as standard, though this coating isn't available for glass lenses as these are generically tougher than plastic lenses and it isn't considered necessary.

High index lens prices:

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Sunglass lenses are plastic prescription lenses tinted brown, green or grey as per sunglasses. All of the sunglass lenses we supply have an anti-UV coating to block out harmful ultra-violet light.

Please be advised that these tints are dark; the completed spectacles will be of use only as sunglasses.

Sunglass lens prices:

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Photochromic lenses (also known photochromatic, Transitions ® lenses, reactolite, reactolites, sunsensor, or sunsensors lenses) darken as sunlight intensifies. These plastic lenses are clear indoors, but outside darken rapidly so that on a bright day the spectacles will effectively become sunglasses.

Photochromic lenses are perfect for those who'd rather combine their spectacles and sunglasses into one. Their only drawbacks are that they don't darken fully when worn in cars (as windscreens filter out most of the UV light which causes the lenses to darken), and conversely they do darken - though not fully - on overcast days as cloud cover does not filter out UV light.

Photochromic lens prices:

Transitions is a registered trademark of Transitions Optical, Inc.

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