Crittall Windows

The distinct horizontal bars of the Crittall Metal Windows Company's steel windows are the stand-out, iconic feature of 1930s 'Moderne' Houses. You either love them or hate them (we must declare at this stage that Chimni loves them). Many people have taken to removing them from 1930s houses and replacing them with UPVC ones. We provide this history to give you the insight for why you should resist. With those windows in place, your house is a crucial piece of architectural history. They link your house to landmark projects around the globe built with Crittall windows including the Boots D10 and the Hoover buildings in the UK, Albert Kahn’s giant Ford River Rouge complex and General Motors buildings in Detroit, Walter Gropius’ Bauhaus, L. Cordonnier’s Peace Palace (The Hague), Illinois Institute of Technology by Mies van der Rohe, and the League of Nations building in Geneva. Because of your Crittall windows, your house takes its place in list of the world’s great buildings.

History[edit]

While we mainly associate Crittall Windows with the 1930's, the company dates back to 1849, when Francis Berrington Crittall bought the Bank Street ironmongery in Braintree, Essex. In 1884 his son, Francis Henry Crittall began to manufacture metal windows at the factory. They were so successful that, five years later they formed the Crittall Manufacturing Company. By 1907, their windows were so successful that they opened their first US factory in Detroit.

During the First World War, Crittall turned their factories over to armament production, but when the war ended they went back to making windows. The Government's 'Homes For Heroes' programme needed to produce thousands of new homes, and Crittall's standardised, factory produced windows fitted the bill perfectly. Their radical new aesthetic summed up the general desire to create a new world after the horrors of the war.

The Crittall family went as far as planning and building a new village for their workers, called Silver End, near their factory at Braintree in Essex. While it was the first garden village to be built in Essex, it was the last in a line of enlightened housing projects built by industrialists for their workers, following Saltaire, Port Sunlight and Bourneville. It encapsulated the utopian aspirations of the Moderne movement, focusing on the interiors and everyday living needs and health of the occupants before the design of the outside of the houses was even considered.

By the early twentieth century, Crittall Windows had become a worldwide window manufacturer with factories and agents from South Africa to Australia.

The Main Crittal Styles[edit]

While the phrase 'Crittal windows' has come to be synonymous with 1930s 'Moderne' houses, the company has a much longer and deeper history with metal casement windows.

Metal framed Crittal casements inserted into Stone Mullion windows
Horizontal bar 'Sun-Trap' Style
Simple Metal framed casements
Contemporary Styles

Stone Mullions[edit]

The original Crittall windows were borne out of the Victorian era re-discovery of Gothic architecture with its stone mullions, and church like window styling. Whereas in original gothic buildings the glazing was fixed, with Crittall's first window styles, a gothic-effect window was possible but with an opening casement.

Metal-framed Crittal casements inserted into stone mullion windows
Metal-framed Crittal casements inserted into timber mullion windows

Horizontal Mullions[edit]

The most commonly known style of Crittall window, it was the Horizontal bar style that led to the word 'Crittall' becoming the generic for all metal windows installed in pre and post-war housing. While all 20th century Crittall's sought to maximise the light allowed into our homes, leading them to sometimes be known as 'suntrap houses', these windows were designed to accentuate the 'horizontal', a common theme in Moderne style architecture.

The classic 'Sun-Trap' rounded corner
The Crittal Horizontal kit of parts

Simple Metal[edit]

Simple Metal framed casements

New Contemporary Designs & Uses[edit]

Contemporary Styles

References[edit]

Crittall Windows

Contents

History[edit]