Comments on: Save The Algha Spectacle Works!

By: Michael Priest

Michael Priest — Wed, 18 Apr 2018 08:30:40 +0000

I’m a long retired 2nd generation Optician. I succeeded my Dad who trained as a Dispensing Optician in the 1930’s, I qualified as an Optometrist in the 1960’s & worked in independent practice for many years.
Algha frames were an important facet of Optical practice in my early career, providing the nhs 422 & 722 gold-filled frames as well as others such as the popular Brody, Dominor etc. The standard supply for the police force was the Dominor for active duty.
Wiseman also made lenses at their long gone Perivale factory, crown glass, rarely used nowadays.
It would be a great pity to lose this heritage industry. Spectacle framemakers were everywhere. I originally worked in inner Birmingham close to the world famous Jewellery Quarter, now a conservation area but a retail-outlet based vestige of what it used to be, similar to that part of London occupied by Algha. I was within walking distance of at least 5 framemakers in that part of Brum, then almost as well known for spectacle making as jewellery & badge making.
Spectacle frames are all mass produced abroad now branded with hired design names. It seems a pity now that the UK is to leave Europe that we can’t rewind some of our old skills, everyone needs eyewear in some form, it’s a massive market as big as footwear. Preserve Algha but add some more, rediscover what we used to be good at if we must sever our connections with our European colleagues.

By: Dave Hawnt

Dave Hawnt — Sun, 05 Mar 2017 22:31:04 +0000

I have a pair of gold Algha Savile Row specticles, stylish, light, strong and never tarnish; so I am a lifelong fan. This Algha Works has to be preserved as part of our indutrial heritage… surely planning permission is required from local planners to proceed with this? Make it clear to them that this is a step to far…

By: Sean

Sean — Tue, 02 Aug 2016 09:46:27 +0000

So that’s where the round glasses I wore from 3 years old would have been made!

Of course thus area had a legacy before the Olympics came. That must be protected, celebrated and saved from the developers. Thank you Gentle Author again for bringing this to wider attention.

By: Shawdian

Shawdian — Mon, 01 Aug 2016 17:01:08 +0000

A disgrace. Signed petition and keep hopeful.

By: Ellen Whittle ( neé Bland )

Ellen Whittle ( neé Bland ) — Mon, 01 Aug 2016 14:49:08 +0000

My father started his own practice as an optician in 1960 and I joined him in practice in 1976.
We always had a few Anglo- American frames that we prescribed and in those days they were usually G/F ( gold filled ) , very occasionally S/F ( silver filled ) .They never tarnished and most patients had new lenses fitted to their frames time and time again. No wonder we never made lots of money! I seem to remember we even had frames from Max Wiseman.

By: James L. Sims

James L. Sims — Sun, 31 Jul 2016 22:15:05 +0000

Briton, America and Europe are losing our manufacturing ability and almost all of our skilled crafts. I was a camera repairman, and my shop included the machine tools to fabricate almost any part that I would need to repair any kind of camera. Camera repair, like other intricate repair work required skill, patience, and a thorough understanding of mechanical circuits. I have no doubt that the Algha Works is one of the last, if not THE last, example of skilled craftsmen and unusually intricate machines combine to fabricate beautiful and delicate things for all to admire.

To destroy an institution such as Algha Works would be a tragedy, and very likely a crime against all those who worked there for so many years! It is as important to preserve our skilled crafts as it is to preserve art.

By: pauline taylor

pauline taylor — Sun, 31 Jul 2016 15:46:56 +0000

Having worn glasses since I was 18 months old I am sure that I must have had many frames which would have been made here, and they were virtually indestructible, many is the time they have had to be bent back into shape for one reason or another but it was always possible and my mother never noticed.

I know what it is like to be forced out of premises by new landlords who want to convert their property into ‘luxury’ flats, we had notice of such an intention by our ex-landlords exactly two years ago today. Fortunately for us we were eventually able to find new, and better, premises, and the new owners of the old premises have not been able to sell the ‘luxury’ flats, one of which still seems to be empty now and the other one was eventually let on a short lease, thus depriving people, who were to all intents, crooks, from making a profit at our expense!!

I hope that there will be a good outcome from all of this for the Algha Works as well but I sympathise with all the stress and heartache that is being caused meanwhile by such unscrupulous landlords.

By: Valerie-Jael

Valerie-Jael — Sun, 31 Jul 2016 06:42:12 +0000

Sad to hear that another well run and functioning business is endangered for luxury flats. I hope the protest will stop the closure. Valerie

By: Robert Green

Robert Green — Sun, 31 Jul 2016 02:12:05 +0000

I regularly walk past this building every week but am surprised to hear the workforce now number just 15, my partner worked at Algha in the 1970s when it was a very busy factory but even though their business appears to have contracted considerably it would be sad to see them forced out of this building, however on a wider issue parts of Fish Island may have been designated as a conservation area but from my observations very little regard for preserving many of these historic remnants from our industrial past is evident, in recent years most of this area has become a magnet for groups of squatters who play their usual cat and mouse game of waiting for eviction and then relocating to the next alternative site nearby and this has included a number of the disused former factory buildings, now a large adjacent area of more recent industrial development has been demolished to make way for an enormous new housing development that is already underway, there needed to be a proper plan to preserve the buildings of historic importance in this area with a vision for their long term use in keeping with their stature or sure enough as with Algha these buildings will all fall prey to the relentless pursuit of the faceless property speculators who will relish the opportunity to convert them into “luxury urban apartment conversions” and then sell them off to Chinese investors who will buy then on the basis of a picture in a glossy sales brochure that they spend less than 10 seconds looking at, want to try to stop them ? ? = SIGN ABOVE.