Doctor Oculus is an independent opticians in Digbeth, Birmingham. We carry out eye examinations, fit glasses, make lenses, repair frames, restore old favourites and design and build our own eyewear in our workshop upstairs.
That last bit is the unusual one. Most opticians sell glasses. Most manufacturers make glasses. Those two jobs drifted apart years ago. Doctor Oculus was built to bring them back together.
The name came long before the business. A friend jokingly started calling Scott “Doctor Oculus” while he was training as a dispensing optician. The nickname stuck. Years later, the shop did too.
Today, Doctor Oculus is the only opticians in Birmingham designing and making its own eyewear on site.
We genuinely welcome people who already have a prescription through a Bring Your Own Prescription appointment.
The optical industry, like a lot of the UK, has lost a lot of its hands-on skills and manufacturing knowledge. We’re still happy to design things, but we’ve become oddly comfortable sending the making somewhere else.
Doctor Oculus repairing, designing and making its own eyewear, on site, in Digbeth, is one small attempt to put some of it back. Today, it’s the only opticians in Birmingham doing it.
Doctor Oculus was established in Digbeth in 2022 because there wasn’t anywhere else it made sense to be.
Digbeth is full of independent businesses, workshops and people making things properly. Most of us were not born here. We chose it.
The shop started as a small pop-up with homemade displays built from cork, old plumbing fittings and whatever else could be rescued or reused. Since then it has grown into an eye clinic, workshop and showroom under one roof, but the idea has stayed exactly the same.
Make good things. Fix what deserves fixing. Don’t rush.
Corporate opticians have their place. They are predictable. You know roughly what you’ll get wherever you go.
Doctor Oculus was built for people who want something more personal than predictable.
Appointments are longer. Glasses are chosen properly. Frames are adjusted properly. Repairs are done in the workshop instead of being written off. If something needs making, we make it. If something needs fixing, we’ll usually try. The goal isn’t to sell the most glasses… It’s to make the right pair.
Scott starts at an independent optician in Coventry. The job turns out to be much more interesting than expected, and he spends the next ten years working with great independent opticians across the West Midlands.
Doctor Oculus opens as a pop-up on Gibb Street, Digbeth. Sustainable independent eyewear, repairs other opticians wouldn’t touch, and Bring Your Own Prescription from day one. Homemade displays built from cork, plumbing offcuts and old coat hangers, because that’s what was around.
The workshop starts taking over the shop. More repairs, more re-lensing, more restoration, more equipment. Celebrated surviving the first year with a big party and a mariachi band.
Doctor Oculus moves to Zellig and starts offering eye exams. The workshop is finally big enough, the shop welcomes lots of new faces, and Scott is named UK Dispensing Optician of the Year.
The first Doctor Oculus original frames. After a winter spent designing them, and a spring and summer hand-crafting them in Digbeth. Made to measure and ready to wear.
Still growing, but always small at heart.
It’s mostly just me. Two optometrists and another dispensing optician help out to meet demand, but the workshop is mine. The secret isn’t complicated. Take the time. Do it properly. Care about the details that most people never see. Works for anything, really.
Our thing happens to be glasses.
Recognition as UK Dispensing Optician of the Year 2025 reflects our dedication to exceptional eyecare and customer service. However, the feedback that matters most comes from our customers. Our five-star Google reviews consistently highlight the time we take, the expertise we provide, and the genuine care we show. We’re not interested in volume, we’re focused on doing right by each person who trusts us with their vision.
Our independent status means freedom to recommend what’s genuinely best for your eyes, not what meets corporate targets. We’re accountable to our community in Birmingham, Solihull, Harborne, and beyond people who choose us specifically because we’re different from high-street chains. Whether you need a comprehensive eye examination, expert frame styling, complex varifocal fitting, or honest advice about relensing, you’ll receive the same thoughtful service that’s earned our reputation. Doctor Oculus exists to prove optometry can be excellent without being stuffy, professional without being impersonal.
Ready to experience independent optometry done properly? Book Your Eye Exam
The short answer is: we have the skills, the workshop, and the freedom to use them.
Doctor Oculus is small, independent and hands-on. We test eyes, fit lenses, repair frames, restore old favourites, re-lens glasses you already own, and design and make our own spectacle frames on site in Digbeth.
Chain opticians are usually built around scale, volume and standardised systems. That works for some things, but it can also mean less time, less flexibility, less room for detail and fewer people with the time, tools or freedom to solve unusual problems or get that extra 10% of performance out of your glasses.
We’re the opposite of that. We take our time, measure properly, adjust carefully, and make decisions around the person in front of us, not around a spreadsheet in a head office.
You can get your prescription done anywhere. You can’t find our glasses anywhere else.
Doctor Oculus lives in Digbeth, but we’re here for everybody. People travel to us from all over Birmingham and beyond.
We’re in the Zellig building, which you’ll probably know as the Custard Factory. It’s an easily accessible building with a bus stop right outside and an on-site car park (get directions). We’re a five-minute walk from Digbeth Coach Station, a 12-minute walk from Moor Street Train Station and a 15-minute walk from New Street Train Station and the town centre.
The main things are eye exams, Bring Your Own Prescription appointments, re-lensing, repairs, frame restoration, lens fitting, frame styling, and handmade eyewear.
You can come to us for a proper eye test, but you can also come in with a prescription from somewhere else. We’re very happy to work with glasses you already own, whether they need new lenses, better fitting, a repair, or a bit of bringing back to life.
We also spend a lot of time on lens tailoring, especially varifocals and more complicated prescriptions, where the measurements, frame choice and fitting really matter.
We design and make our own spectacle frames on site in Digbeth, both made to measure and ready to wear, and sometimes, when what’s really needed is a pause, we sit at the bar with you and have a chat.
So yes, we’re an opticians. But quite a lot happens here besides eye tests.
Yes. Not every pair in the shop is made by us, but Doctor Oculus now designs and makes its own spectacle frames on site in Digbeth.
Some are made to measure for people who are very particular about fit, shape, comfort or style. Others are part of our ready-to-wear Made in Digbeth range.
It’s still a small part of what we do, but it’s a big part of where we’re going.
Yes, please do.
A lot of what we do is working with glasses people already have. That might mean new lenses, a better fit, a repair, a restoration, or figuring out whether an old frame is worth saving.
We like new glasses, obviously. But we also like keeping good ones going.
Yes, but we try not to be smug about it.
We stock independent eyewear brands that use better materials, including bio-acetate and recycled or lower-impact options where possible. We also put a lot of effort into re-lensing, repairing and restoring existing frames, because the most sustainable pair of glasses is often the one you already own.
We refill our plant-based lens cleaner for free, avoid unnecessary waste where we can, and choose things carefully rather than pretending every object in the shop has magically saved the planet.
Good glasses should last. That’s probably the most useful sustainability policy we have.
Yes. You can book eye exams and Bring Your Own Prescription appointments online through the website.
Booking is best if you want proper time set aside, especially for eye tests, new glasses, varifocals, re-lensing, or anything that needs measuring properly.
If you’re just passing and need a quick adjustment, you can always pop in and we’ll help if we can. Just bear in mind it’s a small place, so if we’re in the middle of an eye exam or a fitting, you might need to wait a little.
Basically: book for proper jobs, pop in for little ones.