Stained Glass of Percy Bacon & Brothers

Christ Church, Ealing, circa 1912, from a postcard in the author's collection.

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Christ Church, Ealing Broadway circa 1912. PD Image.

Posted 29 August2024.

Christ Church, Ealing Broadway, was built in 1852 in an Early English style and to designs by George Gilbert Scott, with later additions and decoration by G. F. Bodley.¹ Although originally known as Christ Church, following the Second World War in 1951 it was joined with the nearby St Saviour's which had been gutted by incendiary bombs in 1940, becoming Christ the Saviour. Christ Church was also heavily damaged by enemy action in 1940, but later repaired and restored to its former glory, and is still in use today. Unfortunately all the stained glass windows were lost, including the one known Percy Bacon & Brothers window described below.

Scant information has come to light regarding the window by the Bacon Studio including its location. The window was unveiled and dedicated by the vicar of Christ Church on Whit Monday afternoon 1919. It contained a representation of the Transfiguration of Christ, and was dedicated to a long time churchwarden and sidesman at Christ Church, Robert Willey. The window was donated by his widow. Percy Bacon is reported to have executed the work under the supervision of George Fellowes-Prynne,² who being a local of Ealing became heavily involved in the life of the parish, including designing St Saviour's Church, Ealing in around 1896. There are only five works by the Bacon Studios representing the Transfiguration, and three are now lost (Hetton-le-Hole; Holy Trinity, Exmouth; and Christ Church, Ealing; the extant examples being at St John's, Boscombe, and St Alban's, Bournemouth, though the latter is only an attribution at the time of writing). The Victorian Web has more history of the church.

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1. Gilbert Scott dot org website.
2. Ealing and Acton Gazette, 14 June 1919, p6.