Historical Overview Of The Introduction Of Glass Tax In England And Scotland

This article presents the historical facts about an old taxation system on windows in the United Kingdom. The window tax was introduced into Great Britain in 1696 by King William the third. In those days, the idea of civil liberty was different to that which exists today. In the prevailing climate, people felt that telling the king about their income was an unacceptable intrusion into their private business.

So, in order to be able to impose some sort of taxation on his people, the king decided that people with large houses could be taxed on a tiered system. There was a tax rate of 2 shillings for every householder. This equates to roughly ten new pence. In addition to this there was an extra tax for the householder if their house had more than ten windows.

For a property of ten to twenty windows each person would pay more than the flat rate. They would have to pay four shillings more. And for a house with over twenty windows, the property owner would have to pay eight shillings more. This was later reduced to a house with 7 windows. In 1825, the minimum number of windows taxed would be changed to eight.

This tax was quite unpopular among the people even though it was possible to claim an exemption. If the occupants were poor, they could apply for an exemption.

In order to evade this tax, residents resorted to bricking up extra windows. This occurred mainly in the 17th and early 18th centuries. In Scotland, this tax was not introduced until the 1780s by William Pitt the Younger. Even here, residents painted over their windows black with white crosses. These became known as Pitt’s pictures. A visitor to Charlotte’s Square in Edinburgh can still see these windows on some of the houses.

It may be possible that in contrast to this, many of the richer families actually had extra windows designed into their houses. They commissioned properties with as many windows as possible. Even blank walls had window facades to create the look of more windows.

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