As promised, here is a post on the stained glass within Websters Theatre, formerly Lansdowne Church, on Great Western Road in Glasgow.  As the building is currently under renovation the stained glass in the upper galleries cannot be seen by visitors.  It can only be viewed by intrepid dust covered explorers willing to risk life and limb (or a splinter) for a good photograph.

This large triple lancet window is by English stained glass studio Ward and Hughes of London, and is even more magnificent when viewed close up than it is from afar.  The swirling hand painted patterns in the glass are gorgeous.  The windows were installed by 1864 and are known as the ‘Law Memorial Windows’.  More Ward and Hughes glass can be found in the side galleries, and the current blackout conditions they have found themselves in made them a dream to photograph.

The real stars of the show though, are the windows by Alf Webster within the building.  Alf Webster is a renowned Scottish stained glass artist, but his career was tragically cut short when he died at the age of 30 in 1915 fighting in the First World War.  Unfortunately due to the current state of the buildings upper-gallery and the theatre apparatus it was difficult to get full shots of the windows in their entirety, so I have instead included some beautiful close ups of the details within them.

To find out more about Websters/Lansdowne see the link below and our previous blog post.  Or why not pop into the Glasgow City Heritage Trust offices in Merchant city in Glasgow and buy Gordan Urqhart’s book on the building, ‘A Notable Ornament’.

http://www.cottiers.com/locations/cottiers-kelvinbridge/

Rachael

Please note that the History Girls Scotland are not responsible for any of the content of the above sites. These sites are merely recommendations.