Tucked away on a quiet Fulham street stands a building that once formed the beating heart of Britain's stained glass revival. The Glass House, at numbers 9 to 12 Lettice Street, operated for nearly ninety years as the most important centre for Arts and Crafts stained glass in the country.
A Purpose-Built Sanctuary for Artists
The Glass House opened its doors in 1906, the brainchild of Mary Lowndes and Alfred J. Drury. The two artists had formed the Lowndes and Drury partnership nine years earlier in Chelsea, operating from premises on Park Walk with a modest joint investment of Β£30 each. By 1906, their success demanded larger, purpose-built premises.
The building they commissioned was designed with the specific needs of stained glass artists in mind. Christopher Whall, a towering figure in the Arts and Crafts movement, collaborated with Drury on the design, with Charles Henry Bourne Quennell serving as official architect. The result was a two-storey structure of stock brick with red brick dressings, featuring four gabled bays and tall segmental-headed studio windows on the first floor. These large north-facing windows flooded the workspaces with the consistent, natural light essential for the intricate craft of glass painting and leading.
The building's thoughtful design proved influential, establishing a template for subsequent studio construction. Its significance was formally recognised when it received Grade II listed status in October 1986.
Pioneering a New Model
What made The Glass House revolutionary was its collaborative yet independent structure. Before its establishment, stained glass artists typically worked within large commercial firms or struggled alone with inadequate facilities. Lowndes and Drury offered something different: a fully equipped workshop where independent artists could execute commissions from initial design through to final glazing, whilst retaining complete creative control.
This model attracted an extraordinary roster of talent. Over the decades, artists working at the studio included Edward Liddall Armitage, Robert Anning Bell, Louis Davis, Hugh Arnold, Wilhelmina Geddes, Karl Parsons, Margaret Agnes Rope, Francis Spear, and Martin Travers. Christopher Whall himself had all his windows fabricated at Lowndes and Drury premises from 1897 until 1906, and continued to work there after moving to his own Ravenscourt Park studio in 1907.
Mary Lowndes: Artist and Activist
Mary Lowndes herself was a remarkable figure. Trained at the Slade School of Fine Art, she worked as assistant to Henry Holiday from 1887 to 1892 before striking out on her own. She became one of the first women to work professionally in stained glass during the 1890s, at a time when the field remained overwhelmingly male.
Beyond her artistic achievements, Lowndes played a significant role in the women's suffrage movement. She chaired the Artists' Suffrage League, founded in January 1907, and applied her design skills to creating banners, posters, and postcards for the cause. Her contributions to women's rights were recognised when her name was added to the plinth of the Millicent Fawcett statue unveiled in Parliament Square in 2018.
Lowndes used her position at The Glass House to support other women artists. She trained Wilhelmina Geddes and others, helping to open doors that had previously been closed to female practitioners. The studio's financing itself reflected this progressive spirit: alongside the founders' investments, four women provided crucial loans totalling Β£480.
Nearly a Century of Craftsmanship
The Glass House maintained continuous operations through two World Wars and changing artistic fashions. Following the deaths of Lowndes in 1929 and Drury in 1940, the firm incorporated as a limited company in 1953. Alfred's son, Victor Drury, continued the business until July 1973.
In 1972, Carl Johannes Edwards and his daughter Caroline Margaret Benyon began working at the studio, carrying the tradition into a new era. By the 1980s, only a portion of the building remained dedicated to stained glass work. Caroline Benyon eventually moved the business to Hampton in 1992, and the Lettice Street studio closed its doors for the final time in March 1993.
The Building Today
The Glass House survives as a tangible link to Fulham's artistic heritage. The Grade II listed building, with its distinctive Doric porch and carefully proportioned studio windows, now houses various commercial enterprises. Its current occupants include Power Yoga, Icon Architects, Icon Property Solutions, and Sweaty Betty Holdings.
For nearly ninety years, this unassuming building on Lettice Street supported the creation of stained glass windows that illuminate churches and public buildings across Britain. It stands as a testament to the vision of Mary Lowndes and Alfred Drury, who transformed not only the technical practice of stained glass making but also the professional possibilities available to generations of artists.