GOC register data
UK optician directory
1,889 practice addresses registered with the General Optical Council by 12 UK optical chains, read from each operator's own register entry. 1,828 of 1,889 have a postcode we could locate; the other 61 are listed but not placed on a map.
GOC register read: 2026-10-05
| Operator | Registered practice addresses | GOC registrations |
|---|---|---|
| Asda Opticians | 155 | 1 |
| Bayfields Opticians | 53 | 2 |
| Black & Lizars | 8 | 1 |
| Boots Opticians | 399 | 1 |
| Costco Optical | 29 | 1 |
| Duncan & Todd | 42 | 1 |
| Haine & Smith | 20 | 1 |
| Leightons | 35 | 3 |
| Optical Express | 106 | 1 |
| Scrivens | 168 | 1 |
| Specsavers | 444 | 444 |
| Vision Express | 430 | 1 |
A GOC registration is a registered company. Specsavers registers each store as its own joint-venture company; most other chains register once and list every practice under it, so the two columns measure different things.
Opticians by city
A city is listed once at least 2 different operators have a located practice in its council area.
What this directory covers
These are optical chains, not the whole market. Most UK opticians are independent practices, and they are not listed here. Every address is one the operator has registered with the GOC, which is a statutory register rather than a store locator: it can include a practice that has since moved or closed before the register is updated.
Of 1,889 addresses, 1,524 resolve to an English local authority, 304 to Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, and 61 could not be located from their postcode. Unlocated practices are kept on the operator pages rather than given an approximate position.
Eye-test fees are set by each chain nationally, not per branch. Published fees, with the page each was read from, are on the eye test prices page and on each operator page.
Methodology
Each operator's companies were found with the GOC register's Body Corporate search and assigned to an operator by GOC number or registered name. Practice addresses were read from each registrant's own GOC register page. Postcodes were resolved with postcodes.io (ONS Postcode Directory); the local authority is the upper-tier council. A practice whose postcode cannot be resolved keeps no coordinates and is counted as unplaced — never approximated. This file records where operators are registered to practise. It holds no prices.Sources & further reading
- General Optical Council register — Registered bodies corporate and their practice addresses.
- postcodes.io — Postcode to local authority and coordinates, from the ONS Postcode Directory.