British Optical Association Museum
The College of Optometrists is the custodian of the British Optical Association Museum, the premier optical collection in the country and believed to be the oldest of its type in the world (founded 1901). The collection comprises historic spectacles and lenses, pince-nez, opera glasses, contact lenses, opticians' equipment, orthoptic devices, models of eye disease and the representation of all these subjects in art: paintings, prints and sculpture. The BOA Library has an outstanding collection of books on optics and the workings of the human eye from the sixteenth century to the present. For more information visit www.college-optometrists.org/museum
The BOA Museum also features in our Learning section and our Family History section
Contact Us
The College of Optometrists
42 Craven Street
London
WC2N 5NG
Tel. 020 7766 4353
Assistance and facilities offered to visiting researchers by appointment with the Curator.
Visitor Information
The Museum is open to the public by appointment only, 09:30-17:00 Monday-Friday.
Closed on weekends, Bank Holidays and on some other occasions due to College events. See our appointments to visit page for a list of the dates that are not available.
Free admission, donations welcome.
Building Tours for groups or individuals also offered at a modest charge of £5 per person.
Accessibility: One step up to front door; Museum floors accessible by lift. Library on ground floor.
Charing Cross. We are also easily reached from Waterloo Station via the Hungerford Foot Bridge.
Charing Cross (Northern Line, Bakerloo Line), Embankment (Northern Line, Bakerloo Line, District Line, Circle Line).
Numerous buses serve Trafalgar Square, Northumberland Avenue, Embankment and The Strand.Exhibitions
Latest News from the BOA Museum
Temporary Exhibition: Celebrity Spex Scandal (from September 2011 until further notice)
Eyewear of the once famous and the still infamous.
Temporary Exhibition: Who is Blind? (until further notice)
What does the word 'blind' actually mean and is it in fact our attitude towards the visually impaired that deserves the label? This exhibition can only be viewed as part of our Building Tours
Explore our collections in our searchable online catalogue: www.musEYEum.org
You can now subscribe to the museum curator's HistorEYE blog
Tell Us About Your Visit
I recommend their Open House Event 1 August 2009
This museum's 'Open House' event held on one Sunday every September is a real pleasure to attend. It's so nice to meet people who are so enthusiastic about collections and really know their stuff about the subject. You get to see elsewhere in the beautiful College building too. I've been twice in recent years and heartily recommend it.
- Click for more information:
- Alexander Fleming Laboratory Museum
- Anaesthesia Heritage Centre
- Bethlem Royal Hospital Archives & Museum
- BDA Dental Museum
- British Optical Association Museum
- British Red Cross Museum & Archives
- Chelsea Physic Garden
- Florence Nightingale Museum
- Foundling Museum
- Freud Museum
- Great Ormond Street Hospital Museum
- Langdon Down Museum of Learning Disability
- Museum of the Order of St John
- Old Operating Theatre & Herb Garret
- Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
- Royal College of Physicians Museum
- Royal College of Surgeons Hunterian Museum
- Museum of Royal Pharmaceutical Society
- Royal Society of Medicine
- Royal London Hospital Museum & Archives
- Science Museum
- St Bartholomew's Hospital Museum & Archives
- Wellcome Collection
- Wellcome Library
- Worshipful Society of Apothecaries