[mattdlondon]

Not sure if that was bait or not, but you can get normal (i.e. not google glass) lens + frames for less than £10 delivered in the UK from many different online retailers.

The quality is not amazing - they probably won't last more than a year or so, but then neither does a prescription.

Glasses don't need to be expensive.

[ocdtrekkie]

Maybe things are handled a bit different in the UK than they are here. Generally getting any glasses starts with a visit to your optometrist. Very few people actually get the prescription settings of their lenses handed to them (maybe that's different in the UK?), but place their order through the same vision place as their eye doctor.

Lenses are usually a couple hundred dollars, and your frames will probably be a hundred or more as well. Usually if you have insurance with vision coverage, it helps pay for some or all of that, for a single pair, on a semi-regular basis.

[matthewmacleod]

That will be for nothing more than the most basic single-vision low-index lenses.

Once you start adding features like anti-reflective coatings, high index lenses, comfortable frames, and other things that are bordering on essential for constant use, the cost skyrockets.