OVER 100 YEARS OLD
There has been an opticians here at 21 Fisherton Street for over 100 years. This means we are one of the oldest running businesses on Fisherton Street along with the Florest by the train station. Our central location is nestled amongst a wide variety of other independent stores, something our street is very proud of.
COMBINED EXPERIENCE OF 190 YEARS
It’s our goal to provide you with the ultimate eye care services. We can call on over 190 years worth of combined experience from our expert staff members.
EASY TO GET TO LOCATION
Our location on Fisherton Street is 5 minutes walk from the train station, close to bus routes and the main central car parks. If you’re really lucky the on street parking may have a space free right outside our practice.
MARK JONES EYE CARE - THE HISTORY
Springates Opticians
Our wonderful practice started life around 1900 as part of a small group of opticians called Springates. Here you can see Springates at number 21 on a flooded Fisherton Street in 1915. Notice the classic opticians sign above, we removed some of the old iron recently that would have formed part of that sign. At number 23 is Asbridge Jewellers where in 1907, Mr Eric Asbridge was born.
Mr Eric Asbridge
Mr Eric Asbridge was the son of the Asbridge family jewellers at 23 Fisherton Street. After a brief period of studying jewelry and watchmaking, Eric decided that eyes and the technology that went with it was a career path for him. With the help of the Springates optician at the time, he completed a course at the Worshipful Company Of Spectacle Makers and became a Freeman Of London. He took over Springates in 1928 and changed the name to Asbridge Opticians.
The McCoys
In 1975, Mr Asbridge retired and the practice changed over to The McCoy family, Janet and Malcolm. They retained the practice heritage, excellent reputation and established a strong bond with the infirmary, also on Fisherton Street. The McCoys formed an excellent partnership with Malcolm testing eyes and Janet doing the dispensing. We still have members of their fanclub attending the practice today.
Mr Mark Jones
Mark Jones took over Asbridge Opticians in 2005 and has since gone about slowly modernising and updating the practice. As with the McCoys and Mr Asbridge, Mark has continued to provide exceptional care to the people of Salisbury and continually pushes staff to achieve higher standards. In 2011 Mark changed the name of the business to Mark Jones Eye Care to reflect the modernisation that was going on at the time. We still retain the Asbridge Opticains clock in the practice as a throwback to our heritage.
Mark Jones Eye Care
After the conversion to Mark Jones Eye Care, the practice has rapidly grown and gone from strength to strength. So in 2018, our little practice doubled in size and expanded into number 23. The fact that Mr Asbridge was born in 23 and was once his family business is a lovely finishing touch and completes a brief history of Mark Jones Eye Care to date.