All Saints’ Tudeley Church is the only church in the world to have all its twelve windows decorated by the great Russian artist Marc Chagall. And it’s 40 min train ride from Charing Cross! I am an art addict and looking for art and beauty everywhere. Here is a spot which I was dreaming to visit. I have always wanted to go there! Join me! It’s 40 min ride from London Charing Cross station to Tonbridge (around £7 one way) Chagall was initially reluctant to take on the commission, but was eventually persuaded - and when in 1967 he arrived for the installation of the east window and saw the church, he said, 'It's magnificent. I will do them all.' And over the next 15 years, Chagall designed all the remaining eleven windows, collaborating as usual with glassworker Charles Marq of Reims. The chancel windows were finally installed in 1985, the year of Chagall's death at the age of 98 (replacing Victorian glass, now cunningly backlit by a specially designed lightbox installed in the vestry, at the suggestion of Sir Hugh Casson). The Tudeley windows are inspired, said Chagall, by the words of Psalm 8, especially verses 4-8: No zero request please 🤗

Kate Alexandrova

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