A Double Decker In Stained Glass
The church with the most Londony windows.
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Jesus, Mary, a clutch of disciples and a saintly martyrdom; these are the sacred images we expect to find on stained-glass windows. But a church in Southwark revels in its city-gazing glazing. This is Christ Church off Blackfriars Road, and its delightful windows include a double-decker bus, local landmarks and a downtrodden secretary. Let’s take a look inside.
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Want to join me on a tour of the Brunel Museum in Rotherhithe, complete with introductory talk and access to the historic shaft dug by the Brunels? Our list is now almost full, but we have space for a few more. Contact me on matt@londonist.com if you’d like to come along on the evening of 1 May 2025. The visit is free, though donations to the museum would be appreciated. A pay-bar will also be in operation. This is for paying subscribers and their plus-ones only.
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Upcoming events for those interested in London history.
🪙 MUDLARKING: London Museum Docklands’s much-anticipated exhibition on mudlarking is now open. See dozens of objects scavenged from the Thames foreshore, from everyday trinkets to an Iron Age horned helmet. 4 April 2025-1 March 2026
🪯 COCKNEY SIKH: On 10 April, Suresh Singh, also known as The Cockney Sikh, shares his unique journey from growing up in Spitalfields during a turbulent era, marked by racial tensions. He's at Guildhall Library to discuss the life of his father, Joginder Singh, who emigrated from India to support his family back home.
👗 EDWARDIAN ELEGANCE: This exhibition at the King's Gallery (Buckingham Palace) showcases over 300 objects from the Edwardian era, many displayed for the first time, detailing the lives and tastes of two of Britain's most fashionable royal couples: King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra, and King George V and Queen Mary. Notable artists include Carl Fabergé and Edward Burne-Jones. 11 April-23 November
👩🦳 SUFFRAGETTES AFTER DARK: The Bow Street Police Museum in Covent Garden is open late on 11 April for Suffragettes After Dark, an evening celebrating the work of the suffragettes. Author Jennifer Godfrey discusses her book Secret Missions of the Suffragettes: Glass Breakers and Safe Houses, and you can make your own suffragette rosette and meet Hope, the full-sized model suffragette made from Lego. Age 16+.
🗣️ HISTFEST: The annual festival of all things history returns to the British Library on 26-27 April, with tickets now on sale. The wide-ranging festival this year includes talks on Jane Austen (250 years on from her birth), the women’s orchestra of Auschwitz, and ancient Mesopotamia. I sad it was wide-ranging.
A Double Decker in Stained Glass
A trio of figures catch the eye in a stained-glass window. They could be the Three Magi pointing to the crescent moon. But look again. Those are not turbans, but ladies’ hats. And in place of gold, frankincense and myrrh, one of the women carries a tote of fish.
The three ladies are not on their way to adore the Holy Child. Their thoughts are more with the omnibus than the omnipotent…
This remarkable stained glass window can be found inside Christ Church Southwark, a 1950s rebuild just off Blackfriars Road. Its details are delicious. The bus is clearly a classic Routemaster, a beloved design that can still be spotted on the roads of London today (albeit not in regular service). Its roof is painted white to reflect sunlight and reduce heat. The bus stop carries three route numbers, 4, 45 and 63. During the 1950s, all three routes would have stopped outside the church (the 63 still does).
This is just one of 10 distinctive windows in the nave of Christ Church, designed in the late 1950s by Frederick Cole and Kenneth Bunton, working for Wippell and Co. If you look carefully, you can see Bunton’s name immortalised on one of the shop fascias.
The remaining windows show various scenes from Southwark life, past and present (i.e. as was, in 1959-60). They include familiar buildings. The window shown below, for example, features a depiction of Bankside Power Station, now Tate Modern:
Behind the power station we can, of course, see the dome of St Paul’s. But look behind the chimney. The tallest of the salmon-coloured structures is, I think, the Faraday Building, constructed in the 1930s as a telephone exchange. Power and communications are also referenced in the larger section of the window, which shows an engineer monitoring a bank of dials, with three telephones in the foreground and electricity pylons out of the window.
Here’s another one for you:
The main image shows a lady and two children in 18th century garb. Behind her, we can see typical housing of the period, along with the previous tower of Christ Church (destroyed in the Second World War). The lower panel, meanwhile, depicts the housing estate of Nelson Square, a little south of the church. This was completed in 1958, just before the windows were installed. The housing estate remains today. The boy and girl featured in the upper panel would be as delighted as my daughter if they could see the playground hidden away inside the square — worth a diversion if you’re on Bankside with children.
Not all the windows have aged so well…