Whitefriars Glsss brief history

Here is a little more information about Whitefriars Glass that is from the Boha Glass website 

James Powell & Sons, better known as Whitefriars Glass was the longest running glass house in Britain which started in the mid 18th century. The Old Glass House in Tudor Street dates back to 1740 but records date back to a small glassworks off Fleet Street in 1720.

Whitefriars Glass History: James Powell & Sons

James Powell was a wine merchant and entrepreneur, and a relative of the famous Scout Movement founder; Baden Powell. He bought the factory in 1834 for his three sons who had no experience in glass making.

They, by necessity, found their feet and began incorporating and improving on the new manufacturing processes and technologies emerging from the (by then 100 year old) Industrial Revolution.

One of their main products was mass produced decorative quarry glass which was moulded, printed with black detailing and stained yellow rather than hand-cut and painted. This was a lot cheaper to produce than stained glass and was often used in churches (later to be replaced with stained glass). In the hidden alcoves of Victorian churches you can often still see examples of this quarry glass.

Due to the boom in Victorian church building, they did very well and became leaders in the field. They were great innovators and patented many new manufacturing processes. This success led to them working closely with some of the leading architects and designers of the day, including Philip Webb who designed a range of glass vessels for William Morris that was made by Whitefriars. They became darlings of late Victorian fashion and created tableware inspired by ancient glass or copied from the great paintings hung in museums and art galleries around the World. 

James Humphries Hogan started work with the firm aged 15 in 1898. He designed some very important Cathedral windows, most notably those in the Lady Chapel of Liverpool Cathedral and St. Thomas Church, Fifth Avenue, NYC. As well as being a famous stained glass artist. Hogan also designed the stemmed glassware for use in British Embassies right around the World. 

Glass production pretty much halted at the outset of World War II and after the War, the firm struggled to regain profitability afterwards. The Festival of Britain in 1951 helped jump start the economy and the fortunes of Whitefriars who had been chosen to exhibit there. The factory changed its name to Whitefriars Glass in 1963 and began using the white friar logo. 

Success waned for Whitefriars in the seventies with the exception of the Glacier Range of 1972 and the rise of the millefiori paperweight in the late seventies (which they had been producing since the 1930s). Unfortunately, by the end of the seventies, with the fuel crisis and the recession, the factory was in financial trouble once again and it sadly closed in 1980. The factory was soon bulldozed to may way for housing developments and the ‘Whitefriars’ trademark was purchased by Scottish glass maker Caithness and is still used today for its paperweight range. The WhiteFriars archive is at the Museum of London.