The Fabian Window is a stained-glass window depicting the founders of the

Fabian Society The Fabian Society () is a History of the socialist movement in the United Kingdom, British socialist organisation whose purpose is to advance the principles of social democracy and democratic socialism via gradualist and reformist effort in ...

, designed by

George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from the 188 ...

. The window was stolen from Beatrice Webb House in Dorking in 1978 and reappeared at

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in 2005. It was restored to display in the Shaw Library at the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...

(LSE) in 2006 at a ceremony presided over by then-Prime Minister

Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He was Leader ...

, emphasising

New Labour New Labour is the political philosophy that dominated the history of the British Labour Party from the mid-late 1990s to 2010 under the leadership of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. The term originated in a conference slogan first used by the ...

's intellectual debt to the Fabians.

Design and construction

The stained glass window was designed by

in 1910 as a commemoration of the Fabian Society, and shows fellow Society members

Sidney Webb Sidney James Webb, 1st Baron Passfield, (13 July 1859 – 13 October 1947) was a British socialist, economist and reformer, who co-founded the London School of Economics. He was an early member of the Fabian Society in 1884, joining, like Geo ...

and

Edward R. Pease Edward Reynolds Pease (23 December 1857 – 5 January 1955) was an English writer and a founding member of the Fabian Society. Early life Pease was born near Bristol, the son of devout Quakers, Thomas Pease (1816–1884) and Susanna Ann F ...

, among others, helping to build "the new world". Four Fabians – Beatrice and Sidney Webb,

Graham Wallas Graham Wallas (31 May 1858 – 9 August 1932) was an English socialist, social psychologist, educationalist, a leader of the Fabian Society and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Biography Born in Monkwearmouth, Sunderland, Walla ...

, and Bernard Shaw – founded the London School of Economics with the money left to the Fabian Society by Henry Hutchinson. Supposedly the decision was made at a breakfast party on 4 August 1894. Artist Caroline Townshend (cousin of Shaw's wife Charlotte Payne-Townshend and daughter of Fabian and

Suffragette A suffragette was a member of an activist women's organisation in the early 20th century who, under the banner "Votes for Women", fought for the right to vote in public elections in the United Kingdom. The term refers in particular to members ...

Emily Townshend) created the window according to Shaw's design in 1910. Also included in the window besides Shaw and Townshend themselves were other prominent Fabians such as

H. G. Wells Herbert George Wells (21 September 1866 – 13 August 1946) was an English writer, prolific in many genres. He wrote more than fifty novels and dozens of short stories. His non-fiction output included works of social commentary, politics, hist ...

Annie Besant Annie Besant (; Wood; 1 October 1847 – 20 September 1933) was an English socialist, Theosophy (Blavatskian), theosophist, freemason, women's rights and Home Rule activist, educationist and campaigner for Indian nationalism. She was an arden ...

Hubert Bland Hubert Bland (3 January 1855 – 14 April 1914) was an English author. He was known for being an infamous libertine, a journalist, an early English socialist, and one of the founders of the Fabian Society. He was the husband of Edith Nesbit. Ea ...

, E. Nesbit,

Sydney Olivier Sydney Haldane Olivier, 1st Baron Olivier, (16 April 1859 – 15 February 1943) was a British civil servant. A Fabian and a member of the Labour Party, he served as Governor of Jamaica and as Secretary of State for India in the first gover ...

Oliver Lodge Sir Oliver Joseph Lodge (12 June 1851 – 22 August 1940) was an English physicist whose investigations into electromagnetic radiation contributed to the development of Radio, radio communication. He identified electromagnetic radiation indepe ...

Leonard Woolf Leonard Sidney Woolf (; – ) was a British List of political theorists, political theorist, author, publisher, and civil servant. He was married to author Virginia Woolf. As a member of the Labour Party (UK), Labour Party and the Fabian Socie ...

Emmeline Pankhurst Emmeline Pankhurst (; Goulden; 15 July 1858 – 14 June 1928) was a British political activist who organised the British suffragette movement and helped women to win in 1918 the women's suffrage, right to vote in United Kingdom of Great Brita ...

and Mrs Boyd Dawson. For whatever reason, Shaw never collected the window from Townshend's workshop. The belief is that it remained there until 1947, when Townsend's niece Eva Bourne, also a stained glass artist, presented it to Beatrice Webb House in Holmbury St Mary, near Dorking. This was the year the house was formally opened by the Webb Memorial Trust as a conference and educational venue for the Labour Party and the Fabian Society, officially opened by

Clement Attlee Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee (3 January 18838 October 1967) was a British statesman who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951 and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955. At ...

, who also unveiled the Fabian Window at LSE, having been a former lecturer.

Theft and recovery

The window was subsequently stolen from the house in 1978 and surfaced in

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, soon after, but then disappeared again until it suddenly appeared for sale at

in July 2005. The Webb Memorial Trust re-purchased it and have now loaned it to the London School of Economics to sit alongside the painting of LSE founders Sidney and Beatrice Webb by William Nicholson in the school's Shaw Library.

Comments

Tony Blair

Tony Blair spoke about the remarkable way the Fabians influenced the Labour Party, not just in its creation but also in its economic, political and intellectual development.

Despite all the very obvious differences in policy and attitude and positioning... a lot of the values that the Fabians and George Bernard Shaw stood for would be very recognisable, at least I hope they would, in today's Labour party. One of the things I think they were best at was being utterly iconoclastic about the traditional thinking that governed our country and indeed constantly, whenever a piece of conventional wisdom came out, they questioned that conventional wisdom in its fundamentals, and did so with remarkable success.

Howard Davies

LSE director Howard Davies said: "It is a great honour for the School to have this piece of national heritage on campus. The window will be a visible reminder to students, staff and visitors of the School's historical links with Shaw, the Webbs and other Fabians, whose ideas continue to influence our thinking about society, economics and politics."Press release, "A piece of Fabian history unveiled at LSE," London School of Economics & Political Science Archives Last accessed 17 December 2010

References

External links

The Fabian Window : A piece of Fabian history was installed in the School this April
Accessed 2015-09-22
A piece of Fabian history unveiled at LSE
London School of Economics webpage showing an image of the window. Accessed April 1012
Fabian Society Official websiteThe History of the Fabian Society
by

, its secretary for 25 years; from

Project Gutenberg Project Gutenberg (PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks." It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the oldest digital li ...

Catalogue of the Fabian Society archives held at the London School of Economics
*https://www.andrewwhitehead.net/blog/the-fabian-window-at-the-lse - viewed 15/08/2023 {{coords, 51.514, -0.117, display=title Social democracy Democratic socialism London School of Economics Fabian Society Victorian era History of the Labour Party (UK)