120 Years ago the first Cadburys Dairy Milk Bar was Produced and Allders Options was founded
We love celebrating with fellow Leighton Buzzard businesses. Local businesses are at the very heart of our community so we are thrilled to share their good news
Bedfordshire optometrists celebrate 120th anniversary
One of Bedfordshire’s most trusted opticians with over a century of experience and seven
practices across the county says its vision of “embracing tradition with innovation” has
helped it achieve 12 decades of success.
Allders Opticians, established in 1905 as P.G. Allder in Park Square, Luton, looked back on a
wealth of history during a weekend of celebrations to mark its 120th anniversary.
In Bedfordshire, Allders can be found in Ampthill, Barton-le-Clay, Biggleswade, Dunstable,
Flitwick, Leighton Buzzard and Sandy.
Founded by Percy Allder, a qualified optician and jeweller, the business has grown from a
single shopfront to a trusted name in eyecare across the region, with patients returning
generation after generation.
At a time when ophthalmology was a burgeoning profession, Percy had become a qualified
optician after taking the British Optical Association’s exams. Unlike many of his
contemporaries, he was an optician first, and a jeweller second. It proved to be a shrewd move as in the years following 1918, spectacles were made available to the public through the National Health Insurance Act, which led to a rise in demand.
According to the book, PG Allder and Partners Ltd – Through a Clear Lens, by Norman
Pethybridge and Jed Pascoe – after Percy’s premises were burgled in 1930, he decided to
stop selling jewellery. He used the proceeds from selling his remaining stock to invest in a second property in Luton. This became his first purpose-designed optical practice, with Roland King being taken
on as manager. By 1935, Percy had three practices to his name which put him in a strong position when free sight tests were introduced in 1948, prompting another surge in demand.
Following Percy’s death in 1958, Hugh King became director in 1963, forming a new
company, P.G. Allder & Partners Ltd. His son David, who began working for the company aged 16, took the reins when Hugh died in 1987, and the expansion continued, with Allders boasting 15 practices at the height of its growth.
Mr King, who retired in 2005, was part of the first group of opticians to fit contact lenses,
which involved sedating the patient and taking a casting of the eyeball using similar methods
to that of a dentist making a mould of teeth – a practice that is unrecognisable now.
Mr King said: “You don’t realise at the time that you’re involved in the infancy of something
and you’re part of the journey to improve things for patients. I used to go and train other
opticians in the fitting of contact lenses – now it’s part of the training curriculum.”
Mr King was part of the 120 th anniversary celebrations on Saturday, October 18, and was
joined by Nicole Tubby, Flitwick practice’s newly qualified dispensing optician,
demonstrating both Allders’ strong links to its past and its ambitions for the future.
Mr King added: “I’m pleased that Allders Opticians has served its local communities for so
long and that the name is still over the door – that’s what draws people in.” Allders has 10 independent practices across Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire.
Allders director Stella Bate, who started as a practice manager in 2004, explained why the
company is still going strong, 120 years after Percy Allder first set up shop in Luton and
appealed, in an advertisement, “the favour of a visit of inspection is solicited”.
Stella said: “We are not just a business; we are a family, and we always go back to our roots
as a family firm.
“Our staff know patients by their first names and know all about their families. I think that’s
why Allders has kept going for as long as it has – our priorities have never changed. No
matter who the owner is, our principles have stayed the same. Our ethos – embracing
tradition and innovation – sums up our approach perfectly.”
In more recent years, Allders has established a staff mentoring programme and a dispensing
optician scheme for those interested in gaining the qualification.
As for the future, Stella says that encouraging families, in particular children, to have regular
eye examinations is a priority as myopia – near sightedness – is on the rise amongst children,
due to increased screen time and less time being spent outdoors.
For more details visit https://alldersopticians.com
Other events in 1905:
- The 1905 Russian Revolution saw mass worker strikes, peasant revolts, and
- military rebellions
- Las Vegas was founded as a city
- Albert Einstein published his annus mirabilis papers, revolutionising science’s
- understanding of space, time, mass and energy
- Suffragettes led by Emmeline Pankhurst held their first public protest at Westminster
- Aspirin was sold in the UK for the first time
- Alf Common became the first £1,000 footballer in his transfer from Sheffield
- United to Middlesbrough
- The first Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate bar was produced
