Between Apollo Dry Cleaners and the defunct Xtreme Mobiles, Ronald Brown Opticians (Tel: 0208 521 5181) at 6 St James's Street, faces the zebra crossing, the Embassy Snooker Club and Oxfam at the entrance to the High Street.
Like many services related to the National Health Service (which supplies part of their livelihood) and in the opticians' business generally, the business is open to the public at times to suit the bottom line and the convenience of the staff, not the many locals who, commuting into Central London for the day, would be using the nearby St James's Street station.
Like Eye Fashions, Spec Savers and the nearby Amin Opticians, Ronald Brown have the pleasure of an entire Wednesday off every week, opening Monday to Tuesday and Thursday the Saturday. (At least they haven't taken a leaf out of Mr McAndrew's book, and only decided to open their doors from Thursday to Saturday). This is not a sleepy little business, by the way, but part of a chain called the Scrivens Group, an operation of some 130 branches round the country pretending to be a 'family company' under various homely sounding names.
They open at 9.00am and close at 6.00pm, except on Saturdays when they shut an hour earlier.