Glass House

Meeting the stained-glass makers Caroline and Tony Benyon at their studios in south-west London was fascinating in so many ways.

Caroline and her father Carl Edwards worked at the legendary Glass House studios in Fulham until it closed in 1992. Margaret Rope worked there too of course, probably between 1910 and 1923.

By being ‘last out’, Caroline thus inherited many of the fixtures and fittings of The Glass House… some of them over one hundred years old.

Racks of glass at Benyon Studios — Caroline (left) shows a visitor the racks of glass panes at her studios. The racks are over 100 years old, and came from the original Glass House studios

Sensing my interest, Caroline suddenly pulled out an ancient glass-plate (a measuring tool used by glass artists)… which clearly had once belonged to Margaret Rope – for, on one side, was carved in the letters R-O-P-E.

Rope inscription — Clearly carved into the frame of this very old glass-plate frame are the letters R O P E

Amazingly, a little down on one side of the same frame was Margaret’s monogram, also carved into the wood.

Rope monogram — The monogram incorporates three letters – M A R – laying over each other. MAR are Margaret Agnes Rope’s initials

Being so utterly unexpected a find made this discovery almost… spooky!

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Celebrating Margaret Rope – stained glass-artist

▪A psychic link to the past