Óptica Jomil

The Shop

Upon entering this shop and closing the door behind them, the customer leaves the hustle and bustle of one of Baixa’s busiest streets behind. They enter a separate world, where they are attended to by one of the two assistants, or the founder’s grandson, today the owner. The service is one of the highest principles at this shop. It is worthwhile using it, and any advice given to the full. For example, they offer to take photographs of customers wearing different pairs of glasses so that they can then compare them. A technological touch that shows that the shop has moved with the times, even if it is a repository of memories, objects and glasses that fashion has left behind. Until, that is, it remembers to revive them, which is what fashion does so well. It is common to see family lines here – grandparents bringing their children, who will in turn bring the grandchildren.

They come in search of proximity, continuity and quality – increasingly rarefied things in the high-speed world of service at other opticians. As one can have one’s eyes tested anywhere today without an appointment, it is the follow-up steps that make the difference. And the place itself. The space is small, but full of choices. Quality brands in terms of lenses and frames, and also a collection that has survived from the times when the shop was also sought out for binoculars, thermographs, barometers and other precision devices. One curiosity worth checking out is the “eye wash cup” collection – delicate containers that were used for washing the eyes with rose water. Note also the sign saying “MICROSCOPY – OPHTHALMOLOGY – PROJECTION”, of which only one remains today. The first term refers to the sale of lenses and microscopes and the latter had to do with cinema, for film projectors were also sold here. Today’s visitor will no longer find such articles for sale here, but to make up for that there are some unique items, such as the glasses based on a design by Le Corbusier – known as the Corbs. They are not available anywhere else in Lisbon.