Background -
The claim could be made that London Ontario is Canada’s preeminent city for stained glass, in that there is no city in Canada with a comparable level of saturation of Victorian stained glass in its core area. There are at least two historical reasons for this rich legacy. One, the remarkable entrepreneurial success of the stained glass department of Hobbs hardware in the first half of the twentieth century, and two, the often-observed conservatism of southwestern Ontario which accounts for the preservation of these windows at a time when stained glass was considered old fashioned.

Beginning in 1900 Colonel Thomas Hobbes expanded his hardware empire to more than a dozen franchises across Canada, from Nova Scotia to British Columbia. London was the flagship of his shipping and manufacturing empire, and the Stained Glass Department was the jewel in the crown, employing 60 skilled glaziers in 1927. The scale of Hobbs business, combined with a catalogue-ordering system, allowed his Stained Glass Department to produce a luxury item at a cost that a working man could afford. Hobbs expanded and dominated the local market for the stained glass transoms, fan lights, side lights, key hole or horseshoe windows, which continue to grace London’s historical centre a century later.

The lead strips used in traditional stained glass windows have an average life span of a century, give or take 25 years, depending upon the micro environment and orientation of the window. The cost of releading a stained glass window (which involves appraisal, removal and transport, deconstruction, cleaning, leading-up, and reinstalling) is generally equivalent to the cost of creating a new stained glass window; the reused material cost being offset by the extra labour required. Much of the large inventory of stained glass in London, both domestic and ecclesiastical, is now reaching the end of its “shelf life” and in need of repair or restoration. The hand full of professional studios in London are inadequate to the scale of the work that needs to be done, and the costs involved present a barrier to many homeowners and landlords.

Introductory stained glass courses, set up along the lines of continuing education, and offered through Fanshawe college, PUC programs, or commercial studios have been popular in London for 30 years. This has created a population of several thousand Londoners with introductory-level skills in stained glass design, glass cutting, copper-foiling, and soldering.