Hidden away from the main road along the Embankment in London is the beautiful 2 Temple Place. For many years it was known as Astor House as it was built for William Waldorf Astor, who owned the famous hotel in New York. However William feared for the safety of his family in the violence of New York, he had a particular fear his children might be kidnapped and so decided London would be a better place to set up home.
The home isn’t generally open to the public but on occasion it houses art exhibitions or like I did in September 2021, you can visit during Open House Weekend.
It’s a beautiful if now something of a shell of a building but there were two things I had long wanted to visit for at least a decade or so and they were two magnificent stained glass windows that bookend each side of the Great Hall.
Dating from 1895 and the only landscape scenes that designers Clayon and Bell ever created, are two scenes thought to be from Switzerland and Italy. It’s rather unusual for such large stained glass windows to be at eye level but it means that it is easy to get a really good up close look at them.
The pair of windows are nown as Sunrise and Sunset, the East end which is shown above shows a Swiss landscape and you can see a Swiss flag on the ship in the corner.
The West and sunset scene has never been had its geographic setting confirmed 100% but is usually thought to be set in the Italian Alps
Clayton and Bell were very popular due to their wonderful use of colours and 130 years later, they remain as luminous as ever. It would have been great to sit down on the seats and spend a good half hour admiring them but alas I was sharing the house with dozens of visitors and Covid was then rife so for now a dreamy look at these photos will have to suffice.
You might have seen 2 Temple Place even if you have never been to London as it was used in Downton Abbey.
Stephen Liddell 
They really are pretty windows. Thank you for sharing them, I will keep an eye out for when the building is open, now.
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