11 Wellington St, Woolwich, London SE18 6PQTel: 020 8854 1491
178 Westcombe Hill, Blackheath Standard, London, SE3 7DH
Tel: 020 8858 1858
History of Coton and Hamblin
Infomation about our heritage
Coton and Hamblin Optometrists was formed in Woolwich in 1903, making it one of South East London’s oldest established Optometrists. The company was founded by the Coton brothers. For the majority of its existence the practice has been located on Wellington St. In the past there was a merger with Hamblin, but there is no further history on who Hamblin was. The Coton brothers had no children and the business was passed onto their sister’s son Stanley Packman. Stanley built the practice up and on his retirement it was taken over by his daughter Miss Margaret Packman. Margaret further developed the family business and acquired a second practice at Blackheath Standard – this was previously Bank’s Optometrists. Margaret was very involved in the local community and was an active member of the Woolwich Rotary. As an Optometrist she was very highly regarded after working at Moorfields and the previous Greenwich Hospital Eye Departments. She had a very keen interest in contact lenses and Behavioural Optometry. It was with great sadness that Margaret passed away suddenly in July 2007. Fortunately, Margaret employed a very loyal and dedicated staff that ran the company until it was purchased in September 2008.
The new owner is Miss Joanna Cashell, who has been working at Coton and Hamblin since March 2007. Jo is originally from South Wales, but has been a resident in the Greenwich borough since 2005. Her work history involves working for several high street optical practices and working as a Domicillary Optometrist – carrying out eye exams in people’s homes, special needs centres and residential care homes.
The future plans for Coton and Hamblin remain based on the hard work and ethics of previous owners – with a high emphasis on clinical care to all patients, delivered by our helpful, professional friendly staff.
In both practices, Optos Retinal Scanning machines have recently been installed which allow the Optometrist to assess a larger area of the retina (inside layer of your eye) and to see it in more detail. This is checking the health of your eyes to a greater degree and allows comparisons to be made at future appointments. Click here for more details.
In 2008, Jo ran the London Marathon for the Alzheimer’s Society and ran with Elaine Moody – the first person to run the Marathon who suffers with Alzheimers.