A History of Glassmaking in London

This book is an historical travelogue tracing what is known about London’s numerous glasshouses, who ran them, what they made, where they were located and what has happened to the sites today. Their extensive research casts a new light on London’s long history. The layout of London has hardly changed since the Great Fire of 1666. Most sites have been visited by your author and recorded in pictures. Only a few are totally inaccessible today.

Glassmaking goes back into antiquity but its importance in London arose from the growing need for windows, both plain and decorated. Initially the glass was imported. Between the 7th and 14th centuries some began to be made in England but it was a further 200 years before attempts were made to set up glassmaking, both for windows and tabIeware as a commercial enterprise around London. First glaziers and glass painters arrived to exploit the opportunities offered by this rich and ever-expanding city. Then the change from wood-fired furnaces to coal firing brought an increasing body of glass makers into London itself where the fuel could be brought in by boat up the river Thames.

Initially, the new coal-fired industry was controlled by one man, Sir Robert Mansell but, with the Restoration, London’s entrepreneurs, who could now watch active glassmaking at sites around the City, were attracted to its potential for new investment.

With notable exceptions the City itself, with the ever present risk of fire, was too crowded for such an industry. But, following the abolition of the monasteries and royal annexation of religious land, numerous well-built sites around London became available.

The Southwark Thames-side, between London and Blackfriars became a major centre of development. On the north side of the river main centres for glassmaking developed in disused monasteries on both sides of the city. The old Savoy palace became notable for the invention of English lead crystal glass and ensured the memory of one such entrepreneur, George Ravenscroft and his glassmaker, John Baptista da Costa. Overall, the industry stretched from Woolwich and Ratcliffe in the east to Vauxhall and Whitefriars in the west, encompassing more than 30 factories. We are very familiar with some, such as that of Apsley Pellatt, about others we still have much to learn. This book tells much of what we know.