The Nation’s Favourite Stained Glass Window – St Albans Cathedral – Rose Window – 3rd Place

3rd place in our search to find the Nation’s favourite stained glass window goes to the Rose Window at St Albans Cathedral.

St Albans Cathedral – Rose Window (1989)

Sixty-four openings of 18,000 pieces of hand-blown ‘antique glass’ as creation and the created universe, Alan Younger (1933–2004), north transept, diameter 9.1 m

Lord Grimthorpe’s heavy, clear-glazed Rose Window at St Albans Cathedral was replaced in 1989 by a glorious explosion of colour created by Alan Younger.

The great weight of Grimthorpe’s masonry immediately suggested to Younger a rich, fully coloured scheme using tiny pieces of glass to achieve a jewel-like effect. The modern window is formed of sixty-four openings and contains 18,000 pieces of hand-blown glass (known as antique glass).

Rose windows serve as symbols of creation and of the created universe. Younger chose to explore this theme using basic geometric shapes such as squares, circles and triangles. Their arrangement was informed by a simple mathematical idea from the Middle Ages: that to multiply three by four is, in a mystical sense, to infuse matter (the window’s four major circles could represent the elements) with the spirit (the window’s large triangle symbolises the Trinity). The resulting number twelve signifies order and the universal Church.

Younger’s hope was that the window would make an immediate impact upon anyone entering the building, while also rewarding the kind of extended observation that reveals the window’s intricate rhythms and mathematical groupings.

The colour, emphasis and mood of the Rose are constantly shifting as a result of changes in the light, both over the course of a single day and as one season transitions into another. The dark glazing and wire protection grill visible from the outside have led to the Rose being called the ‘Magic Window’ by the local population; the kaleidoscope of colour high in the north transept only becomes apparent when you enter the Cathedral. The window was dedicated by Diana, Princess of Wales.

Read more about all the windows in our campaign here.

You can buy the book, Divine Light – The Stained Glass of England’s Cathedrals here.