British artist to design stained glass window for Queen Elizabeth II

A new stained glass window is to be installed at the most famous church in Britain here, Westminster Abbey, it was announced Tuesday.

The window will celebrate the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, Britain's longest-serving monarch, and will be designed by David Hockney, one of Britain's most influential contemporary artists.

In a statement Tuesday, Abbey officials said the window, to be known as The Queen's Window, is in the north transept of the Abbey and is one of the church's few remaining windows without stained glass.

The Dean of Westminster, the Very Reverend Dr John Hall, said: "I am delighted to announce our intention to celebrate Her Majesty's reign with a stained glass window on the west side of the north transept and that David Hockney has agreed to design the window."

The window will be made by a specialist studio in York, the Barley Studio.

After succeeding her father King George VI in February 1952, Queen Elizabeth II, who this year celebrated her 90th birthday, was crowned at Westminster Abbey in June 1953. Six years earlier, the then princess Elizabeth married the Duke of Edinburgh in the abbey in November 1947. Her grandson, Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, was married there to Catherine Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge, in April 2011.

The abbey has been the coronation church since 1066 where every King and Queen has been crowned ever since, and is the final resting place of seventeen monarchs. The present church, begun by Henry III in 1245, is one of the most important Gothic buildings in the country, with the medieval shrine of an Anglo-Saxon saint still at its heart. Endit