Crittall Windows

The distinct horizontal bars of Crittall'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 Tumbla loves them).

History

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 and as Francis Crittall wrote in his autobiography in 1935: ‘In planning the houses we decided to sacrifice traditional design in the cause of light and air and space.........’

References

Fifty Years of Work and Play (1935) - An autobiography by Francis Crittall