What is an oriel window?
12th February 2026 by | Uncategorized
While writing Murder in the Tower, I often describe spaces where power is observed rather than spoken aloud. One such architectural detail is the oriel window.
An oriel window is a projecting window, usually supported by brackets or corbels, and does not reach the ground. In the Tudor period, these windows were often found in great halls or private chambers, allowing their occupants to look down into courtyards or halls below—seeing without being seen.
In the 1540s, oriel windows were as much about status and surveillance as they were about light. To stand within one was to occupy a position of quiet authority.
Architecture, like politics, was never neutral.
Read The Reflection in the Mirror Now
My second novel in this Murder in the Tower saga, The Wolf of Whitehall, will be published in late February 2026.
Gemma
The past is never silent.
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