Continuing a legacy of optometry excellence at City.
In the 1800s, Clerkenwell was a centre for light engineering including, significantly, the optical industry. The Northampton Polytechnic Institute, the forerunner to City, was set up in 1894 to provide education for various branches of technology.
By 1898, this included evening classes in technical optics designed to prepare candidates for examinations of the Worshipful Company of Spectacle Makers. Sight testing started in 1903 following the formation of the Department of Technical Optics.
During the 20th century, the scope of optometry education at City expanded steadily. By 1947 our then Department of Optics began offering three-year full-time courses in ophthalmic optics to Higher School Certificate (A level equivalent) entrants.
In 1966, we began offering our first bachelor’s degree, the BSc Ophthalmic Optics, and during the 1970s, about a quarter of all intakes to optometry courses in the UK came to City. In 1997, our Department of Optometry & Visual Science began offering a postgraduate master’s degree in clinical optometry.
In parallel with the increase in student numbers, our clinical facilities have expanded too. In the mid-20th century, there was a relatively small public clinic on Cranwood Street on the east side of City Road, which was later replaced by a much larger clinic in the Dame Alice Owen Building on Goswell Road.
In 2000, we launched our state of the art ‘Fight for Sight Optometry Clinic’ on Bath Street. Former speaker of the House of Commons, Baroness Betty Boothroyd, then president of partner charity, Fight for Sight, officially opened the clinic.
Fifteen years later, in a further measure to improve our facilities, the clinic moved to purpose built facilities embedded in the beating heart of our main Northampton Square campus; the City Sight Clinic you see today. The launch event, in January 2016, featured then MP and Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow.
From 2023, we began offering a four-year master’s in optometry (MOPTOM) programme following an educational strategic review by the General Optical Council.
Today, City Sight sees over 2,500 patients per year, offering general and specialist eye care services to the local and wider community.
Discover our longstanding tradition of teaching and research excellence.
The Department combines a longstanding tradition of academic excellence at undergraduate and postgraduate level with a research-active body of academics and PhD students.
The Applied Vision Research Centre aims to develop, promote and carry out research that spans laboratory- based fundamental studies in vision to translational applied vision research.