Scotland 2025: Glasgow - Architecture of Charles Rennie Mackintosh

On our first day in Glasgow, we could walk to all the places that we wanted to visit. To reach our planned destinations for the next two days, we needed to take transit.  Luckily, the St.Enoch subway station was within a block of our hotel. The Glasgow subway system consists of 15 stations that form a circular route with an Outer (clockwise) and Inner (counterclockwise) loop. You can buy a paper ticket for a one-way or return trip from the kiosk in the station and you need to both tap on to enter and tap off to exit. All-day passes are also available and are worth the money if you plan to take 3 or more rides in a day. 

We spent the next few days exploring the architecture, designs and artwork of renowned Scottish architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868-1928) and his artist wife Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh (1864-1933).  Charles designed architectural masterpieces including tea rooms, churches, offices, schools, art galleries, shops and homes, prioritizing the use of stone, glass and iron. He provided designs for both the exterior and interior including furnishings while Margaret worked in metalwork, textiles, graphics, watercolours and gesso, contributing many artworks to his buildings.  Margaret also often worked in collaboration with her equally talented sister Frances Macdonald Macnair.

Mackintosh's works are associated with the "Glasgow Style Movement," a subset of Art Nouveau that is characterized by floral-inspired decorative motifs with subtle curves as well as strong right angles. The style also incorporates influences from Arts and Crafts, as well as Japanese and Scottish designs.

Since Glasgow was their hometown and primary place of business, the city has the largest number of surviving buildings, interiors and designs by Mackintosh. There is a Mackintosh Trail on the Visit Glasgow website as well as many free self-guided or paid tours that can be used to visit locations featuring his works.  In preparation for our trip, we researched and planned our own Mackintosh tour, which involved visiting two museums, two houses and two tearooms.  There are other tributes to Charles Mackintosh throughout the city including a massive mural of him decorated with his signature rose motifs by the River Clyde and a bronze sculpture of the architect seated on one of his iconic Argyle chairs located near Kelvin Hall.

The first museum that contains examples of works by Charles and Margaret Mackintosh is the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, a public institution for art, culture and natural history.  This museum includes a gallery titled “Mackintosh and the Glasgow Style” with works on display by both Charles and Margaret, as well as other contemporaries who contributed to that movement.  Highlights include items saved from Miss Cranstan’s Ingram Street Tea Room which originally opened in 1886.  It was redesigned and added onto by Mackintosh from 1900-1912 and finally closed and was demolished in 1971.  Margaret’s Gesso panel “The Wassail” once hung on the wall while the tables featured high-back chairs which Charles designed in 1900.  A few artifacts were on display from the Chinese Room or Blue Room (1911) which featured blue lattice panels, decorative screens, a pagoda-like canopy, distinctive Asian-styled oak chairs with blue cushions matching the walls, and a Chinese tea service.  Two oak barrel chairs (1907) and a Domino table (1910) were also designed for various tea rooms.  We saw a Domino clock (1917) made from ebonized wood, ivory and plastic with the numbers shaped like square domino tiles.  We would see more clock designs at the next museum.

Opened in 1807, the Hunterian Museum is Scotland’s oldest public museum and is operated by the University of Glasgow.  A separate building is allocated for the Hunterian Art Gallery which houses the largest collection of works by Charles and Margaret Mackintosh including furniture, drawings, watercolours, gessoes and even a meticulously reconstructed house which requires an entry fee.  Several artworks by Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh include “White Rose and Red Rose” (1902), a panel made from Hessian fibre, gesso, glass beads, shells and paint created for the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative Art in Turin.  Her blue/green/yellow tiled stained-glass work titled “Summer” (1893) depicts an elongated female rising towards the sun. With her sister Frances, Margaret created a design for a screen titled “Birth and Death of the Winds” which was created into 3-paneled metal screen.   Variations of the design for the Domino Clock that we saw at Kelvingrove include versions where the dice representing the numbers were triangular or circular.  Photographer Jimmy Robert created a self-portrait photograph of himself sitting in one of the chairs in the Hunterian’s Mackintosh House, which we would visit next.

Charles and Margaret Mackintosh lived in a 3-storey (plus attic) house in the Hillhead area between 1906 to 1914. Although the actual building was not designed and built by Mackintosh, during the 8 years that they spent there, the couple renovated the interior extensively.  They expanded rooms and added elongated windows for more light, designed and built custom furniture and other decorative features while emphasizing austerity in their design.  They moved to London in 1915, selling the house, furniture, fixtures and fittings to patron William Davidson.  Upon Davidson’s death, the building and contents were donated to the University of Glasgow.  While the original house was demolished in 1963 to build more student quarters, the contents of the main rooms were carefully removed, photographed and catalogued.  Between 1966-1981, a new building dubbed the “Mackintosh House” was created in the Hunterian Art Gallery and the interior rooms of the original house were carefully reconstructed. Even the orientation of the original house was replicated so that the same light exposure would be experienced.  The front hallway is notable for a beaten lead mirror titled "Vanity", decorated with subtle natural motifs and geometric forms, designed by Margaret and Frances.

The Dining Room has a large bay window for natural light.  White walls and ceiling contrast with dark-stained wood paneling accented with rose motifs, and dark furniture including a buffet cabinet, a fireplace with geometric carvings flanked by built-in shelves, and a wooden rectangular dining table surrounded by Mackintosh’s signature high-back Argyle chairs with the oval head rests.  It is interesting how Mackintosh’s designs can feel minimalist and yet ornate at the same time.

A large L-shaped space is divided into a studio/library and a drawing room, delineated by linen drapes that could close to keep the rooms separate, or stay open to create one large space. The Studio/Library features the original version of Margaret’s White Rose and Red Rose gesso hanging over a fireplace with large bookshelves on either side.  The shelves are stocked with books reflecting the time period and interests of the Mackintoshes.  The impressive mahogany desk found by the window was created by Charles in 1904 for his own use. It has a writing cabinet decorated with mauve glass flowers with twin doors adorned with squares made from mother of pearl.  The desk was sold at auction for almost $178,000 USD in 1979 and was donated to the Hunterian Art Gallery for inclusion in the house.  Ivory white cabinets with stained glass inlays depicting floral motifs line the wall facing the fireplace.

The Drawing Room is decorated almost entirely in off-white, including the walls, ceiling, carpet, drapes and furniture.  The only major exceptions are the dangling light sconces and the dark accent found at the base of the fireplace which also has built in seating on either side and built-in cubby-holes for knickknacks along the side.  The position of a high-backed armchair with a dark wooden frame, linen upholstery accented by a beige checkered pattern, and round medallions adorning the arms help to separate the studio from the drawing room and is the only piece of furniture that is not primarily white in colour.  Green-patterned stencils of floral motifs resembling vases full of roses are printed on the cloth backs of some chairs, which along with an oval table were part of a room setting in “the Rose Boudoir” exhibit in Turin in 1902.  Other ornamentations on the furniture include the decorative metal panels of females holding roses on the inner doors of a white cabinet, the ornate silver panels affixed to a desk, and the purple accent cushion on a high-back chair.

The second floor contains two bedrooms that could not be more different in design and aesthetics.  The principal bedroom is mostly white, reminiscent of the drawing room below.  A four-poster king-sized bed is decorated with an elongated, plant-like geometric pattern in the centre post and rose motifs on the canopy.  A metal panel depicting a female form flanked by two babies sits above the fireplace.  A magnificent full-length vanity mirror made of painted wood has elaborate carvings of stylized rose and thistle patterns with small pull-out drawers running down both sides of the frames.

Located in the Mackintosh House Gallery on the top floor, the other bedroom on display is not part of the Mackintoshes' original home, but rather a recreation of a guest bedroom that Mackintosh designed for his patron W.J.Bassett-Loweke from Northampton, U.K.  The bedroom suite is made of light oak decorated with blue squares along the top edges.  But what made this room most striking were the white and navy-blue vertical stripes on the back wall that extended up onto the ceiling and were complemented by similar stripes in the bedding.  This is one of Charles’ last interior designs which might explain its more modern feel.

The Gallery houses other Mackintosh works owned by the university including extensive holdings of drawings and designs.  Up high on the walls of the stairwell leading up to the gallery was the oil on canvas painting “The Little Hills” (1914) by Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh.  The work depicts themes of abundance and divine bounty and highlights her Art Nouveau style.  Next to it is George Walton’s decorative panel titled “Eros” (1901) made from marble, slate, glass, bone metal foil, silver and mother-of-pearl.  On an adjacent wall is a replica of the banner created for the Scottish section of the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative Art, Turin (1902). It depicts a female form holding a rose.  Arriving in the actual gallery space on the top floor, we found paintings, drawings and photographs, and furniture.  This included a table that has 10 slender legs and an intricate lattice of intersecting rails at the bottom, a cabinet with decorative metal panels with inlays that look like reeds, (but when put together look like the head of the alien ET), and various styles of chairs.

House for an Art Lover Mackintosh was constructed between 1989 to 1996, based on plans that Charles and Margaret created for a German design competition in 1901. Entrants submitted anonymous original, artistic designs for a “modern” house on a site with pre-specified room sizes and layouts, emphasizing harmony between exteriors and interiors. The Mackintoshes' entry was late and incomplete and therefore disqualified from the main prizes but was impressive enough to be awarded a special prize and published in design magazines. Almost nine decades later, civil engineer Graham Roxburgh spearheaded a project to construct the house based on the original design portfolio.  A location in Bellahouston Park in the south-west end of Glasgow was chosen for its spacious parkland setting, landscaped grounds, and play areas.

The result is a three-storey building with a “minimalist Art Nouveau exterior” consisting of off-white plastered walls accented by columns of rectangular windows, with elongated ones overlooking the terrace for the dining room/music room.  Large yellow-hued relief panels on the façade depict natural motifs and intertwining organic forms representing growth and nature. From the back, you can see a round, turret-like structure which contains a winding “apsidal” staircase that connects all the floors.

Because their proposed house was not meant to be built, the Mackintoshes could design freely without worrying about cost and so this house is much more lavish than the Mackintosh House, which was modeled after their personal home.  Built as a visitor’s attraction, House for an Art Lover includes a café, kitchen and gift shop in the basement and a ground floor gallery/museum that was not part of the original design. In addition to tours, the space and grounds are rented for weddings and private events.

Upon entering the house from the ground floor, we were ushered into an interpretation room/gallery where we learned more about the house, its architecture, and design features.  We saw 3-D models of the house, descriptions of the rooms, and details about how finishes and decorations were reproduced to match Mackintosh’s design.  This included information about stained-glass for windows, textiles and embroidery, gessoes, ceramics, woodwork, metal work, and stone carving.

The first room that we visited was the Oval Room where Edwardian women would withdraw after dinner, while the gentlemen retired to a smoking room.  Mackintosh selected the oval shape as a symbol of femininity and fitted the fireplace, cupboards and windows along the gentle curves of the walls. The chandelier also reflects the circular shape. Tucked against both sides of the window are two chairs each separated by a short wall for privacy. The chairs are facing one another to provide a space for intimate conversation.  Although the room feels sparse and austere, a closer look reveals subtle organic carvings on the furniture and the grill of the fireplace.

The lengthy Main Hall leads to the Dining Room and can be separated by a moveable partition. For large banquets, the partitions are opened to create a single room where many tables can be arranged.  Since the space is often rented out for weddings and other events, this is the configuration that we saw during our visit.  But photos from the internet show that when the rooms are not required for a large event, the hall is empty and the dining room features a single long table with high-back chairs.  The dark paneled walls of the two spaces are decorated with gesso panels and the back wall of the dining room features a fireplace and the rose motifs.

The centrepiece of the house is the beautiful Music room with south-facing floor-to-ceiling bow windows that flood natural light into the space and curved doors that lead to the terrace overlooking the park.  The room is decorated with white panels covered in rose, green, and violet images of stylized females surrounded by curvy vertical lines and roses, which are repeated on the fabric banners hung by the windows. A gorgeous functional piano sits against one end of the room. It is decorated with a spiraling timber structure that rises up from the keyboard and forms the shape of a flower from afar but also contains roses and other floral designs within its curves.  At the other end is a fireplace with roundels featuring images from Margaret’s gesso art.  This room is also often rented out for weddings and banquets and is really stunning to behold.

The rooms in Mackintosh’s design for the first floor were not built. Instead, this level is used as an exhibition space where models of other Mackintosh designs that were never built are on display.  These were entries for the Glasgow International Competition for Kelvingrove Park including an exhibition hall, a bar and restaurant, and two designs for concert halls.

Bellahouston Park, the site chosen for House for an Art Lover Mackintosh, is a public green space spanning 180 acres that was acquired by the city of Glasgow in 1896. It hosted the 1938 Empire Exhibition which resulted in the construction of a Palace of Art that has since been converted into a major sports centre. The Bellahouston walled garden was originally a kitchen garden for the Ibroxhill House built in 1840. Today it is a pretty flower garden with seasonal shrubs and plants. Several prominent sculptures are found in the park including “Foot and Arch” depicting a concrete foot in front of a block of cement with a footprint cut out of it, created by Indian sculptor Ganesh Gohain, and the 11-tonne “Elephant for Glasgow” made from scrap iron by sculptor Kenny Hunter. Just outside the Art Lover house is a playground full of colourful and whimsical climbable structures including a pirate ship and abstract shapes. Many events take place in the park including a mass led by Pope Benedict XI in 2010, pipe band competitions, concerts and more.

Our final planned destination was Mackintosh at Willows, the only surviving tearoom designed by Charles Macinktosh.  Located at 217 Sauchiehall St., it was commissioned by Miss Catherine Cranston who owned multiple tea rooms, and first opened in 1903.  Today, tea service including high tea is still served in the front and back salons on the ground floor, and a paid guided tour describes Mackintosh’s architectural style and design, takes you upstairs to see more historic rooms that are not always open to the public and concludes with access to an interactive exhibition detailing the history of the building (which is free to the public even without the tour).

This tearoom underwent a major £10 million project in 2018, renovating and restoring all the rooms to their former glory. On the ground floor the front salon installed a new fireplace and replicated decorative panels. The windows facing the street make the space bright and cheery and are covered by banner-like drapery with green and pink geometric designs similar to what we saw at the Art Lovers house. The high-back ladder chairs and low-back armchairs are all replicas based on Charles’ original designs. The design above the fireplace features a decorative panel with a willow motif, in keeping with the name of the tearoom.

The back salon was kept intentionally darker with a lower ceiling like in a Japanese teahouse, for the purpose of saving electricity. Rose and willow motifs on stained glass and frosted glass paneled doors decorate the space. On the next level, with a light well overlooking the back salon, is the Mezzanine Gallery which hosts private functions in a quieter space away from the lower salons. A lattice ceiling was reinstated and a supplementary railing was subtly added around the original railing of the light well in order to raise the height and meet current safety standards without detracting from the original design.  The carvings on the six central pillars with chandelier lights dangling against them evoke the willow tree. The space is decorated with purple panels topped with pink roses and divided by vertical black trellis patterns. Hand-rung bells on the tables hark back to Edwardian times as a discreet way for patrons to summon waitresses. A stained-glass railing with willow designs provides of view of the front salon from above.

The highlight of the tour came on the floor above the mezzanine. We entered the Salon de Luxe through a beautiful set of double doors featuring intricate leaded glass designs that reflect Mackintosh’s stylized geometric patterns and willow and rose motifs. These doors are replicas created in 2000, while we would see the originals at the end of our tour in the exhibition space. The room, which was a private ladies’ tearoom, has a barrel-vaulted ceiling where an unbelievably elegant and ornate chandelier hangs, comprised of a complex arrangement of green and pink spheres intermixed with white orbs infused with air bubbles to mimic willow tree dew drops. An entire wall of glass windows brings natural light into the room that is decorated in hues of pink, purple, silver and grey to “imitate a jewel box”.  High-back silver chairs with purple plush velvet upholstery are accented with small squares of pink glass on the backs that are echoed in the black squares running along the grey carpet. Like in the Mezzanine Gallery, bells are found on each table. On the walls are mirrored panels with the willow design and a replica of Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh’s iconic 1903 gesso panel titled “O Ye, All Ye That Walk in the Willowwood”, made from painted gesso, twine, glass beads and other materials.  The original work was inspired by Dante Gabriel Rosetti’s Willowwood sonnets and is found in Kelvingrove Art Gallery.

On the next floor up is the Billiard Room where gentlemen would congregate.  In contrast to the colours used for the Salon de Luxe, this male-only room is decorated with dark oak paneling and forest green tones in the leather backs of the bench-styled banquettes and the lamp shades of the chandelier.  The billiards table that once dominated the space has been replaced by a long table and chairs, suitable for business meetings.  A replica fireplace with royal blue tiles, a metal grill and a pair of metal candleholders is found on one side of the room. A small space that used to be a smoking room has been converted into an area for preparing and serving food and drinks during private events.

After our tour ended, we were directed into the interactive exhibition that gave a good background on the life and culture of Glasgow society during Mackintosh’s time, as well as more details on the history of the building and its design. We were able to dress up in some period clothing, played a game where we guessed the food based on its appearance, then reviewed panel boards and watched videos describing the techniques that Mackintosh used, and the efforts to recreate them during the restoration. We learned about the history of Miss Cranston and how she initially had to hide her gender in order to operate her tearooms. We inspected a deconstructed example of the silver and purple high-back chair that we saw in the Salon de Luxe so we could understand what was behind its creation. We learned about recreating the gesso work and the chandelier bobbles from that room and were able to see the original doors.

We had pre-booked a seating for high tea in the front salon immediately following our tour.  During the tour, we had spotted this amazing architectural centrepiece in the middle of the room. It was a "baldacchin" (ceremonial covering) that formed a wooden and metal canopy shaped like a stylized willow tree. Four wooden legs spanning in each direction form the base, which is topped a sphere-like vase with flowers extending upwards and lights hanging from the bottom.  Surrounding the vase are metal beams that reflect the willow shapes seen throughout the tearoom.  Two tables, each with two chairs are nestled between the legs of the canopy, providing unique, intimate spaces for enjoying tea.  Luckily, we were able to secure one of the tables, making the experience all the more fun.  

For our high tea, we had savory items including cheese and caramelized onion chutney quiche, chicken Caesar wrap, cheese and pickle as well as a tuna and cucumber finger sandwiches.  On the next tier were plain and fruit scones with jam and clotted cream.  The top plate featured a lemon meringue tart, pistachio and raspberry macaroon, rhubarb and custard cream mousse cake, and a black forest cake.  The blue and white tea set featured Chinoiserie Willow patterns with pagoda, bridge, boat and willow trees reminiscent of the patterns used in early 1900s. There was an extensive tea menu with a wide assortment of loose-leaf teas from which you could have unlimited selections. We each tried two teas including the 1903 Blend (pekoe black tea), Blue Lady (black tea with grapefruit and marigold flowers), Orange oolong, and Berry Hibiscus teas. They each came in a separate tea pot with a metal strainer to catch any loose tea leaves.

The next day, we passed by another establishment called “Willows Tearoom on Buchanan” which had a very similar façade and signage design as the original building. I went upstairs to have a quick peek and was disappointed by how small and cramped the space felt and the relatively sparse decorative features. The only thing that reminded me of the original tearoom that we visited the day before were the chairs, which were decent replicas of Mackintosh’s designs. Further research showed that this tearoom and another in Edinburgh are run by a different business entity founded in 1983 that merely uses the name and inspiration of Miss Cranston’s Willows tearoom. So, if you just want a nice cup of tea and scones, this is a good alternative. But if you want to see the full glory of a Mackintosh designed tearoom, you need to go to Mackintosh at the Willows.