NOUVEAU/

No. 18 — Charles Rennie Mackintosh

Willow Tearooms

Object record
ArtistCharles Rennie Mackintosh, 1868–1928
Date1903
Mediuminterior architecture: painted plaster, leaded glass, high-backed chairs and textiles
CityGlasgow
Location217 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow — restored and reopened as working tearooms in 2018; the Room de Luxe preserved

For Miss Catherine Cranston's chain of tea rooms, Mackintosh redesigned the entire frontage at 217 Sauchiehall Street in 1903, controlling everything from the white-and-violet façade to cutlery and menus.

Its Room de Luxe, lined with leaded glass and rose silk panels by Margaret Macdonald beneath a suspended oval mirror, is reckoned the most complete surviving Mackintosh interior.

The name puns on Sauchiehall, 'willow dell', and willow motifs recur throughout.

Generative companiondrag to turn · arrow keys rotate

Rose-pink and white silks glowing behind leaded glass in a violet-panelled room of tall-backed chairs.

The companion piece

Rose-pink and white silks glowing behind leaded glass in a violet-panelled room of tall-backed chairs. The algorithm runs live above; when WebGL sleeps, the drawn still takes its place.

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