Interior of the Willow Tea Room, Glasgow, 1903

This is a photograph of the Willow Tea Room in Glasgow, which occupied an open plan space at 217 Sauchiehall Street in one of Glasgow’s most fashionable shopping streets.  It was designed for restaurateur Kate Cranston by Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868-1928) while a partner at the architectural practice of Honeyman Keppie and Mackintosh. This photograph of the front saloon was published in the Glasgow Herald shortly after it opened in 1903.  Such was Mackintosh’s international reputation that the photograph was also published in Germany’s leading art journal, Dekorative Kunst, two years later.

The freestanding structure in the foreground of the photograph houses two tables with specially designed chairs, making four dining place-settings in total. The structure is topped with an elaborate wrought iron flower-stand comprising a broad glass bowl caged within a wrought iron corona.  Mackintosh’s interest in unusual divisions of architectural space created open-sided eating ‘islands’ for Cranston’s clientele, providing the occupants with a sense of enclosure by offering a private space within a public one.  The photograph provides a glimpse into the general lunchroom at the rear and into the whiter, brighter Salon de Luxe on the upper mezzanine floor. Decorative metalwork, painted wood and decorative gesso panels were handcrafted elements in Mackintosh’s elegant and functional tea room interiors. Wrought iron uprights and rails divide the downstairs lunchrooms from the more exclusive dining and leisure areas higher in the building.

Kate Cranston had previously employed Mackintosh to design decorative details and the complete interior for her restaurant at 205-217 Ingram Street, Glasgow (c.1900). The Willow Tea Room was one of a series of notable creative collaborations between Mackintosh and his wife Margaret Macdonald (1864-1933). The couple were married in 1900 and Margaret designed decorative gesso panels for a number of Mackintosh's interiors.

Mackintosh was born to Margaret and William McIntosh, a clerk in the Glasgow police force in 1868.  He studied at Glasgow School of Art (GSA) under Francis (Fra) Newbery and met Herbert McNair whilst serving as an architect’s apprentice between 1885 and 1889.  Mackintosh’s and McNair’s work with the sisters Margaret and Francis Macdonald defined a particular aspect of what has become known as The Glasgow Style, notable for its sinuous forms and use of Celtic imagery and symbolism. In 1900 Mackintosh and Macdonald exhibited a wall-and-furniture ensemble at the Secession Exhibition in Vienna, including decorative gesso friezes by Margaret that were later installed at Cranston’s Ingram Street restaurant.

Mackintosh’s most well known architectural projects include the Glasgow School of Art (1899) and Hill House (1904) built for the publisher Walter Blackie, but he also worked on commissions in London (Derngate, c.1917) and designed furnishings for clients and exhibitions. The National Museum Scotland’s collection includes a wooden settle designed by Mackintosh with lead panels possibly designed by Margaret.  It was made by the decorating firm of craftsmen, J. & W. Guthrie, Glasgow and was exhibited at the 1896 Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society exhibition in London. Mackintosh commissioned the construction of his furnishing and interiors from key Glasgow’ artisan manufacturers, and over 30 firms were involved in the creation of the Willow Tea Rooms.