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These web pages are dedicated to the architecture of Charles Rennie Mackintosh in and around his home city of Glasgow, where he lived and worked in the years surrounding the dawning of the twentieth century.
Portrait of Charles Rennie Mackintosh
Charles Rennie Mackintosh was born in 1868 in Parson Street Glasgow where, nearly 30 years later, he was to assist in the design of Martyrs School.
The most striking elements of Martyrs School are the two matching stairwells, topped with curved canopies which are integral to the roof structure.
Stair tower at Martyrs School, Glasgow
Martyrs School is one of the the earliest buildings attributed to Charles Rennie Mackintosh, designed in 1895, around the same time as the Glasgow Herald Building .
It was built with red sandstone in the Scots Renaissance style, as were most of the new Glasgow schools of the time, which had to follow the design guidelines of the conservatively minded local School Boards.
Glasgow Herald Building
The very narrow Mitchell Street was the home of the Glasgow Herald newspaper from 1870 until 1980 when new publishing practices created a requirement for more modern premises.
Details of Glasgow Herald towers from architect's blueprints and modern drawing
Stylised Mackintosh rose in tower of Daily Record Building viewed from the east
The Daily Record Printing Works in Renfield Lane has a frontage finished with white and blue glazed bricks with sculpted sandstone finishes to the ground floor and the top storey. It was designed in 1901 and completed in 1904, nearly a decade after the Glasgow Herald Building with which it has some similarities at roof level and at the tower. Drawing of the façade of Daily Record Building
The view shown above could never be seen in reality as the lane is a mere 6 metres wide. No satisfactory viewing point can be reached to get a good look at Mackintosh's design intentions. The façade's originality was enhanced by the use of full height tree motifs placed between the bays. Mackintosh created these symbols by the simple use of different coloured bricks.
When the Daily Record vacated the building in the late 1930's it was used as a clothing manufacturing workshop by R.W. Forsyth who were Glasgow's premier outfitters at the time. Forsyth's occupied a large shop in nearby Renfield Street.
John Keppie
Mackintosh worked closely with his firm's senior partner, John Keppie (above), in the specialised and complex design of these newspaper production plants. Contemporary sources credit Keppie as the architect rather than recognising the up-and-coming talent of Charles Rennie Mackintosh.
The blueprints showing the sections and construction details of the Glasgow Herald Building are signed "John Honeyman and Keppie, Archts"
Glasgow School of Art, North Façade
Glasgow School of Art, situated on a steep hill leading down to Sauchiehall Street, is one of the few Art-Noveau buildings in Glasgow, displaying a style influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement of the late 19th century.
The west wing (left) and east wing (right) of the Glasgow School of Art
are situated on a steep hill running down towards Sauchiehall Street, sloping away from the main north-facing façade which fronts Renfrew Street.
Drawing of entrance to Glasgow School of Art
Ornate iron railings at Glasgow School of Art
Willow Tearooms, Sauchiehall Street
The striking façade of the Willow tearooms on the south side of Sauchiehall Street was added by Mackintosh to an existing multi-storey commercial building in 1904. The highly original and stylish frontage has retained its freshness a century later with a timeless modernity.
Scotland Street School
Glasgow's circular subway system will take you from the city centre to Scotland Street School, which is near to Shields Road station.
When Glasgow was the European capital of Culture in 1990, funding was found to restore the building to the original Rennie Mackintosh designs for both interior and exterior decoration.
It has served as Glasgow's Museum of Education since 12th December 1990, and currently features period classrooms, exhibition space and an audio visual theatre.
Detail from infants entrance of Scotland Street School
Western stair tower at Scotland Street School
House for an Art Lover, Bellahouston Park
Also on the city's south side you can visit the House for an Art Lover which Mackintosh designed in 1901 for a competition entry. It was never built in his lifetime but his vision was realised in the closing years of the century when the house was built within Bellahouston Park, opening to the public in 1996.
Detail from south façade of House for an Art Lover
Hill House, Helensburgh
Mackintosh's finest domestic work is situated in Helensburgh, on the south facing slopes of the Firth of Clyde. It was built as a new home for the publisher, Walter Blackie. Western entrance of Hill House, Helensburgh
Stair tower at rear of Hill House, Helensburgh
Queen's Cross Church
Mackintosh's Queen's Cross Church, situated close to the Partick Thistle football ground in the north of the city, now serves as headquarters of the
Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society. Blue heart shaped window at Queen's Cross Church, Glasgow
At Queen's Cross, Mackintosh was very bold in his synthesis of a traditional Gothic window with flamboyant Art Nouveau tracery, rather than the usual imitation of mediaeval patterns.
Tower of Queen's Cross Church, Glasgow
The church's multi-faceted tower gives interesting glimpses of light and shadow on its various surfaces.
Ruchill Free Church Halls
Mackintosh's only other ecclesiastical work was the Ruchill Free Church Halls which were completed in 1899.
Doorway at Glasgow Herald Building
Thomson meets Mackintosh - Mitchell Library, Glasgow, August & September 2007
Visitors to Glasgow during August and September 2007 were able to visit my "Thomson meets Mackintosh" exhibition at the Mitchell Library (above).
The exhibition highlighted the work of the city's two best known architects.
The drawing, below, at the western façade shows how Mackintosh disturbed the continuity of the school’s roof with a pagoda style overhang on top of the stairwell.
This was very different from the usual eaves design of the time.
This part of the roof structure could have easily been made continuous with the adjacent classroom block with no need for the large cantilevered eaves sweeping grandly over the feature windows.
There are Japanese influences in the use and shape of the projecting timber eaves, above, and also in some of the internal details.
These features are credited to Mackintosh, who had studied Japanese art and architecture at Glasgow School of Art.
The external decoration shows indications of his developing Art Nouveau style, particularly around the doorways, right.
Mackintosh is credited with the extension of 1893-1895, which features many of his familiar design preferences in its exterior. He had more freedom to express his individualism here than with the Martyrs School, designed around the same time.
The lower floors were used as production space where the newspapers where dispatched from platforms open to the street.
The upper floors, which have less of an industrial feel about them, were used for the editorial and commercial side of the operation.
When Glasgow was awarded the title "UK city of Architecture
1999", the block was altered and extended to create a modern Architecture and Design centre, the Lighthouse.
As a working newspaper plant, the premises had been altered at various stages throughout the 20th century; as a result there were very few, if any, period furnishings to retain for its restoration.
The proposed leaded dome was never added to the tower during construction, probably because it could not have been seen and properly appreciated.
Scottish Mutual Assurance housed their computer systems in this building from 1984 to 1997, when it became unoccupied. There was a bridge at second floor level, at the rear of the premises, which allowed access to Scottish Mutual's main offices in St Vincent Street.
There were plans in 1999 to create a nightclub within the empty shell but these had to be abandoned due to the costs involved. In March 2006, Glasgow City Council gave permission to create a café bar and live music venue within the building. The Stereo Bar opened in November 2007, occupying the ground floor and basement of the old works.
It is generally accepted that Keppie was comfortable in allowing Mackintosh to carry out most of the design work for these important commissions which feature typical CRM themes and symbols in the stonework.
The alterations to the Glasgow Herald Building following the First World War and the block's 1927 refurbishment are solely credited to John Keppie, having taken place after Mackintosh had left the firm.
Mackintosh had submitted his designs for the competition in 1895 and was successful in becoming the winning entrant when the result was announced in early 1897. Funding limitatations meant that the building was erected in stages between 1897 and 1909.
Glasgow School of Art still demonstrates a freshness of style and presents a fascinating insight into turn of the century modernism.
Both internally and externally, Mackintosh skillfully managed to combine the elements of architecture and interior design to produce a stunning result.
The subtle effect of the bowed windows (below) creates a 3-dimensional shop front different from any other, either modern or old, in Glasgow's premier shopping street.
Miss Catherine Cranston (left), a
Victorian lady with a remarkable flair for business, was a pioneer of the tearoom movement which featured greatly in Glasgow's social life at the turn of the
century. The luncheon rooms and tearooms which carried her name were well known to
most Glasgow citizens, demonstrating her refined taste in the fixtures and
fittings as well as the decor.
The building is of a most imaginative design which would have been ultra-modern for its day. It features twin towers infilled with leaded glass which at night twinkles in the lights of the nearby M8 motorway. Both the stonework and interior decoration show Mackintosh's genius with a novel style which is entirely his own.
The Reverend Alexander Simpson, Convenor of the School Board of Glasgow, formally opened the school on 5th October 1906. It remained in use until 1979, when it had to close as there were not enough pupils to continue in operation.
The Hill House was built between 1902 and 1904, with further work by Mackintosh in 1912. The interior design and furniture are remarkably well preserved. The extensive gardens are beautifully maintained by the National Trust for Scotland.
The architecture is difficult to categorise and once again illustrates Mackintosh's unique design skills with beautiful Art Nouveau detailing both outside and inside the church. He was responsible for the spectacular interior decoration and fittings as well as the exterior, illustrated above.
A £1 million refurbishment was completed in early 2007.
The window features a blue heart infilled with individually coloured small panes of glass, with subtle changes of hue to bring the image to life.
The drawing, above, uses a bit of artistic license to combine the shading of the tracery as seen from the street with the light from the window, which could only be seen from within the church.
You'll have to go inside to view the lighting effects properly.
Because of the requirements of the clients, this little building is more conservative than some of his later more modernistic designs. It shows traditional Scottish influences embellished with the individualistic touches which you expect from CRM.
Significantly, the Free Church did not ask Mackintosh to design the adjacent church building.
 Lighthouse
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All original artwork, photography and text © Gerald Blaikie 2002-2012 Contact: admin@scotcities.com
Unauthorised reproduction of any image on this website is not permitted.
