Secular stained glass: ten of London’s best
- London On The Ground
- Jan 18
- 8 min read
A range of non-religious stained glass windows telling London stories.
Very often associated with saints and scenes from the Bible, stained glass is an art form that also portrays secular history.
My eclectic selection illustrates aviation, pioneering women, printing, the law, civic governance, actors, artists and writers. It is only a fraction of the wonderful secular stained glass in - and about - London.
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In no particular order, here is my choice of 10 London locations where stained glass tells stories about the history of London (and, in some cases, the UK more broadly).
1. RAF Club: Celebrating Women in the RAF and RAF Past and Present
The RAF Club on Piccadilly contains two remarkable works of stained glass by artist Helen Whittaker.
In 2017 the RAF Club commissioned her to make two windows in celebration of women in the RAF. This includes the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force, the Air Transport Auxiliary and the Women’s Royal Air Force (organisations in which women served before full integration with the RAF in 1994).
The work was unveiled by Queen Elizabeth II in 2018, the centenary year of the RAF (which was founded at the former Cecil Hotel on the Strand in 1918). It includes lines of rivets, which are lenses through which photos of individual women from the history of the service can be glimpsed. You can read more on this work at the artist's website here.
Helen Whittaker’s first window for the club, designed in 2008, depicts much of the history of the Royal Air Force, including a World War II pilot and Lancaster bomber and a Harrier jump jet. There are many other details in the composition, which is in a very tall window over a staircase, as described by Helen Whittaker here.
2. Old Bailey: heraldic window
The Old Bailey, officially the Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, was originally established in the 16th century as the magistrates' court of the City of London and Middlesex. The current building, opened in 1907, has a national role, but is still maintained by the City and the Lord Mayor (Lady Mayor currently) is still technically the Chief Magistrate in the City.
In the centre of the window on the grand staircase at the Old Bailey is the Royal coat of arms, with the City of London arms above it and those of Middlesex below.
In the upper part of the left hand margin is the Bridge Mark, the symbol of the Bridge House Estates, which was established in 1282 to maintain Old London Bridge (and which now owns a number of properties in the City of London, including the Old Bailey). The shield of Middlesex, with its three blades (Saxon knives known as seaxes), appears again at lower left.
In the right margin is the shield of the City of Westminster and, lower down, what appear to be the arms of the Borough of Guildford (I am not sure why).
The bottom left corner of the window shows the names of sculptors F. W. Pomeroy and Alfred Turner and artists Sir William Blake Richmond and Gerald Moira, who all created artworks in the Old Bailey before the current building opened (Moira also made murals in 1950, part of a restoration project after World War II bomb damage).
3. Church of St Mary, Battersea: Blake and Turner windows
Two English artists, both Londoners, are commemorated in stained glass in St Mary, Battersea, which was built in 1777 and overlooks the River Thames. The windows were created by John Hayward in the late 1970s (he also made windows in St Mary-le-Bow in the City - see later).
The first window is a tribute to artist, engraver and poet William Blake (1757-1827), who married Catherine Boucher in the church in 1782. At the bottom left of the window, we see Blake’s signature in the wedding register, while Catherine, who was illiterate, signs only with a cross. There are also two pencil portraits: William by Catherine and Catherine by William. The main image of Blake in the centre of the window is from his portrait by Thomas Phillips.
Painter J. M. W. Turner (1775-1851) lived in a house in Chelsea, over the river from the church, and was frequently rowed across the water by his servant to paint from the church (which also still has ‘Turner’s Chair’). The central image is from a self-portrait Turner painted as a young man. St Mary’s is shown behind this image and in the bottom right corner of the window. Bottom left is an image of the original works of the Morgan Crucible Company, founded in Battersea in 1856, which made carbon and ceramic products and which donated the window in 1978.
4. Guildhall: Lord Mayor’s window
Inside the medieval Guildhall, the City of London's town hall, is the Mayoral Window. Designed by Alfred Fisher in 1989, it marks the 800th anniversary of the first Lord Mayor of the City of London, Henry Fitz-Ailwyn, a London draper, who was appointed by Richard I in 1189.
The coat of arms at upper left represents Fitz-Ailwyn. His tenure predated formal heraldry, so this is an invented coat of arms, depicting a man with a sledgehammer above a shield with four weathervanes and five martlets (mythical birds with no feet, representing continuous effort). The figure '1' in the lowest weathervane symbolises the first Mayor.
The City of London coat of arms is at upper right (see Present arms! London's portrayal in seals and heraldry for its history).
Below the two coats of arms, a kind of comic strip shows scenes from London's history. The left hand section focuses on Fitz-Ailwyn's time, including his welcoming Richard I on return from the Third Crusade and the Great Fire of 1212.
The right hand section shows four-time Lord Mayor Richard Whittington with his cat; the Great Fire of 1666 and Sir Christopher Wren with builders and masons reconstructing the City; the Blitzed Great Hall in World War II: and the modern resurrection of London as financial powerhouse, with London Bridge, Lloyds of London and Tower 42, which was originally the NatWest Tower and the only skyscraper in the City when the window was made in 1989 (see also A timeline of the tallest building in London: from St Paul’s to the Shard) .
At bottom left is the coat of arms of Christopher Collett, Lord Mayor in 1989, while the shield at bottom right denotes the Worshipful Company of Glaziers, who paid for this window.
5. Southwark Cathedral: Shakespeare window
This 1954 window, by Christopher Webb, is situated above a stone monument in Southwark Cathedral portraying a reclining William Shakespeare. The poet and playwright lived nearby in the late 1590s and worked at the Globe Theatre, also nearby, from 1599 to 1613.
The window depicts characters from Shakespeare’s plays. The central figure is Prospero (from The Tempest). Figures from the comedies populate the left hand panel, while the tragedies are represented on the right.
You can read more details from Southwark Cathedral’s website here.
You can read about other London locations associated with Shakespeare in the following posts:
6. St Giles Cripplegate: Edward Alleyn window
Edward Alleyn was the foremost actor of the Elizabethan and Jacobean theatre in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, acting with and managing the Admiral's Men. The only other contender to be London's leading actor was Richard Burbage, of the Chamberlain's Men, William Shakespeare's troupe, which became the King's Men under James I.
Alleyn grew wealthy through owning or co-owning theatres (with his father-in-law Philip Henslow) and bear-baiting arenas. These included the Rose Theatre Bankside and, north of the Thames, the Fortune Theatre in the parish of St Giles Cripplegate (also mentioned in this post about nearby Whitecross Street). He founded almshouses for the elderly poor not far from the Fortune Theatre and Dulwich College in the south.
A window honouring Edward Alleyn was created by leading stained glass maker John Lawson in St Giles Cripplegate as part of its post World War II restoration. I haven't been able to establish the date it was installed, but this was probably no earlier than the late 1960s. The window shows Alleyn cradling his almshouses (which were demolished in 1964). It also shows the Fortune Theatre and the church of St Luke’s, which was built in the 1730s to take over over the northern part of the parish of St Giles at a time when London was expanding.
7. St Mary-le-Bow: Mayoralty Seal window
This window, made by John Hayward in 1963, is in the Wren church of St Mary-le-Bow on Cheapside.
The top half is a reproduction of London’s Mayoralty Seal of 1381, showing St Thomas Becket and St Paul sitting side by side (see also Present arms! London's portrayal in seals and heraldry). Although it includes religious iconography, the window’s imagery is mainly secular, portraying aspects the City of London’s history of civic governance.
The lower half depicts the coat of arms of six of the Great Twelve City Livery Companies. The six shown are (first row, left to right) the Skinners, Vintners, Merchant Taylors, (second row, left to right) Haberdashers, Ironmongers and Clothworkers (the remaining Great Twelve companies are represented in another window in the church).
8. Stationers’ Hall: Caxton Window
This window was installed in the Livery Hall of the Worshipful Company of Stationers in 1894, a gift of Joshua Butterworth, the company’s Master at the time.
It is a fanciful image of William Caxton presenting his work to Edward IV and his Queen, Elizabeth Woodville. Caxton introduced the printing press to England in 1473, changing the bookselling and publishing industry forever. His apprentice, Wynkyn de Worde, is shown at the bottom left. De Worde took over the business when Caxton died and moved the press to Fleet Street in c.1500.
When I visited the hall (in September 2023), there was a small hole in the window! Can you spot it?
9. St Bartholomew’s Hospital: Henry VIII Charter Window
The Great Hall of the North Wing at St Bartholomew's Hospital in the City of London contains the splendid Charter Window. It depicts King Henry VIII giving a new charter to the hospital in 1546, setting it back on its feet after the king's closure of the adjoining St Bartholomew's Priory had threatened the hospital's future.
The oldest pieces of glass in the window are thought to date from the 1620s/30s. The window was expertly restored in 2025 as part of the restoration of the entire North Wing (see also my post on the restoration project). The window now needs fewer strips of lead holding pieces of the glass together!
The North Wing is open to the public Mondays and Tuesdays and on the first Sunday of the month, 10am-4pm.
10. Dr Johnson’s House: Samuel Johnson
A stained glass portrait of Samuel Johnson hangs inside his former home in Gough Square, an alleyway off Fleet Street. The background of the image depicts the cathedral at Lichfield in Staffordshire, the city of Johnson’s birth in 1709.
The image of Johnson is based on Joshua Reynolds' portrait of him, painted in c.1772. Unfortunately, however, there is no information near the stained glass image with details of when it was made, or by whom.
The lexicographer, critic, editor, essayist and playwright was one of 18th century London’s significant literary figures. He was also responsible for one of the most famous quotes about London, which remains just as true today:
“Sir, when a man is tired of London he is tired of life: for there is in London all that life can afford.”
Quite right. And there are a lot more stained glass windows out there to back him up!
Walks available for booking
For a schedule of forthcoming London On The Ground guided walks and tours, please click here.
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