Queen Victoria Rose Window at the western end of the Great Hall, in W. H. Crossland's Rochdale Town Hall, Lancashire. c. 1871. At the window's heart is a bold, dignified portrait, showing the Queen with her crown, orb and scepter, wearing the familiar blue sash of the Order of the Garter, the portrait ringed with the red roses of the House of the Lancaster in the background, and surrounded by an outer circle of small roundels, each featuring a more typical version of the red rose, and suggesting thriving life. Beyond that are many smaller symbolic lights, some grouped round a George Cross, one around a star, as if placing the Queen at the very centre of a whole universe. Opposite a similar rose window depicting Prince Albert, this represents the culmination of the stained glass scheme in the grand room, with portraits of earlier monarchs of the realm building up to it.
Photographs © David Dixon, originally posted on the website Geograph (the main one here), and kindly made available for reuse under the terms of the CC BY-SA 2.0 Deed Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic licence. [Click on the image to enlarge it.] Text by Jacqueline Banerjee.
Created 24 November 2023