The History of the Rising Sash Window

The origins of the rising sash window are obscure. Most commentators place its origin in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but there is good evidence to place it rather earlier. Carol Davidson Cragoe, in "How to Read Buildings" (Herbert Press, London) suggests the invention might be attributed to Robert Hooke (1635-1703). There is certainly a good case to be made (of which, more anon) and he was certainly an inventive and creative mechanic, engineer, designer, and architect with the capability of doing so. As curator of the Royal Society and, simultaneously, laboratory technician to the eminent physicist Robert Boyle, he demonstrated a prodigious ability to design and build mechanical and scientific apparatus of all sorts. He later became an assistant to the great architect Christopher Wren, and, as Chief Surveyor to the City of London, was responsible for overseeing more than 50% of the rebuilding of London following the Great Fire of 1666.

An architect in his own right, few of his buildings survive today, but a drawing in 1858 of his Royal College of Physicians (completed 1678) shows rising sashes in every visible elevation.

A diary entry dated Feb 2nd 1680 refers to sash windows in Montagu House.
This is the earliest known reference to sash windows.

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