The Willow Tea Rooms in Glasgow.
How one man’s vision put an indelible stamp on a city.
Rarely can a fire have caused such universal mourning. When the Glasgow School Of Art went up in flames in May, the outpouring of grief was utterly genuine. There’s arguably no other building in Britain that stands alone as a pure work of art rather than a symbol of power.
Initial estimates suggest that around 70% of the contents of Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s masterwork have been saved – and funds are already being raised for a full restoration. Tragically, the sumptuous heart of the building – the library – looks like it has gone. It was the consummate melding together of Mackintosh’s influences. Long thin lines and graceful elongations from Japan. Seed and rose motifs from art nouveau. Wood panels all carved slightly differently, bringing native American totem poles to mind. Skyscraper-esque lamps hanging down on chains like dozens of mini Empire State Buildings, foreshadowing the art deco movement that was to come. They combined into an extraordinary whole.
Mackintosh took a holistic approach to designing the School of Art building, and every little touch – from the brass panels on the doors to the cage-like boxes for the heating and ventilation system – was part of his grand plan. That includes the typeface used – the distinctive Mackintosh font has spawned hundreds of imitations, and it is fairly ubiquitous throughout Glasgow.
Few people can have had such an impact on the look of a single city as Mackintosh. He designed numerous tearooms, private houses and public buildings across Glasgow, and his style is so distinctive that people make pilgrimages from all over the world to see it in situ.
Somewhat incongruously positioned between a shabby shop selling Celtic football shirts and a Sainsbury’s Local, the Willow Tea Rooms bring an air of grace and elegance to Glasgow’s often rowdy Sauchiehall Street. The details are swoony – slivers of stained glass, long thin lines, oddly stretched chair backs – and they have the fingerprints of Charles Rennie Mackintosh all over them.
Perhaps the most exquisite Mackintosh work in Glasgow, however, is one that he never made during his lifetime. In 1901, Mackintosh entered a competition run by a German magazine to design a house for a wealthy art lover. He was disqualified due to not submitting enough drawings, but those he did submit were published anyway as they were thought to be so dazzlingly good.
In the 1990s, a group of Glasgow architects and artists decided that they would go ahead and make the house. The House For An Art Lover stands in Bellahouston Park, opposite a pretty scratty-looking dry ski slope, and is a continual work in progress – alterations are made whenever better information comes to light. Mackintosh’s original drawings left no detail on some rooms, but when they were detailed, the recreations are heavenly. The music room is the one that reduces visitors to helpless babbling, and most of the Mackintosh signatures are there.
It’s less than 20 years old though, and acknowledging this makes Mackintosh’s greatest strength click. His work is so distinctive that it simultaneously looks old, contemporary and futuristic. It’s at home in both period drama and sci-fi. But wherever it turns up, it has a strong Glaswegian accent.
Disclosure: David Whitley was a guest of Visit Scotland. This story was originally written for the National Geographic Traveller (UK) blog.
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