Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
5
he only way to see the School of Art is to take one of the student-led
guided tours
,
or visit during the degree show in June. All over the school, from the roof to the
stairwells, Mackintosh's unique touches recur - Japanese lantern shapes, images of seeds
and roses, and stylized Celtic illuminations. Even before entering the building up the
gently curving stairway, you cannot fail to be struck by the soaring height of the
north-facing
windows
, which light the art studios and were designed, characteristically,
to combine aesthetics with practicality.
In the side entrance hall, the school shop sells tour tickets and a good selection of
Mackintosh books, posters and cards. Hanging in the hall stairwell is the artist's highly
personal wrought-iron version of the legend of St Mungo represented on the city's coat
of arms. Above this, the
Gallery
, the largest space in the school, is a classic example of
the architect's use of contrasts, with light flooding in from a skylight, yet dark beams
CHARLES RENNIE MACKINTOSH
The work of the architect
Charles Rennie Mackintosh
(1868-1928) has come to be
synonymous with the image of Glasgow. Historians may disagree over whether his work was a
forerunner of the modernist movement or merely the sunset of Victorianism, but he
undoubtedly created buildings of great beauty, idiosyncratically fusing Scots Baronial with
Gothic, Art Nouveau and modern design. Though the bulk of his work was conceived at the
turn of the twentieth century, since the 1970s Mackintosh's ideas have become particularly
fashionable, giving rise to a certain amount of ersatz “
Mockintosh
” in his home city, with his
distinctive lettering and design features used time and again by shops, pubs and businesses.
Fortunately, there are also plenty of examples of the genuine article, making the city
something of a pilgrimage centre for art and design students from all over the world.
Mackintosh's big break came in 1896, when he won the competition to design a new home
for the
Glasgow School of Art
(see p.191). This is his most famous work, but a number of
smaller buildings created during his tenure with the architects Honeyman and Keppie, which
began in 1889, document the development of his style. One of his earliest commissions was
for a new building to house the
Glasgow Herald
on Mitchell Lane, off Argyle Street. A massive
tower rises up from the corner, giving the building its popular name of
The Lighthouse
; it
now houses the Mackintosh Interpretation Centre (see p.185).
In the 1890s Glasgow went wild for tearooms, where the middle classes could play billiards
and chess, read in the library or merely chat. The imposing Miss Cranston, who dominated the
Glasgow teashop scene, commissioned Mackintosh to plan the interiors for her growing
business. Over the next twenty years he designed articles from teaspoons to furniture and,
finally, as in the case of the
Willow Tea Rooms
(see p.191), the structure itself.
The spectre of limited budgets was to haunt Mackintosh throughout his career, and he never
had the chance to design and construct with complete freedom. However, these constraints
didn't manage to dull his creativity, as demonstrated by the
Scotland Street School
of 1904,
just south of the river (see p.200). It is his most symmetrical work, with a whimsical nod to
history in the Scots Baronial conical tower roofs and sandstone building material. Mackintosh's
forceful personality and originality did not endear him to construction workers: he would
frequently change his mind or add details at the last minute, often overstretching a budget.
This lost him the support of local builders and architects and prompted him to move to Suffolk
in 1914 to escape the “philistines” of Glasgow and to re-evaluate his achievements. Indeed, the
building that arguably displays Mackintosh at his most flamboyant was one he never saw built,
the
House for an Art Lover
(see p.200), constructed in Bellahouston Park in 1996, 95 years
after the plans were submitted to a German architectural competition.
THE MACKINTOSH TRAIL TICKET
This one-day pass (£16), including entry to twelve principal Mackintosh buildings as well as
unlimited underground and bus travel, is available from the tourist o
ce, the attractions on
the trail, and the Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society (
T
0141 946 6600,
W
crmsociety.com),
which is based in the Mackintosh-designed Queens Cross Church in the northwest of the city
at 870 Garscube Rd.
