Search Results : mackintosh

Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Margaret Macdonald

 Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom
Dec 162022
 

December 2022

Hill House

Hill House

When I was here just two months ago, I concentrated on the architecture of Alexander Thomson as I had too little time to discover the works of Glasgow’s most famous architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh.  At the time, I knew I was coming back for three days of a whirlwind through Mackintosh.  What I did not count on was the fact that the daylight only lasts until 3:30 and that it would be 18 degrees outside.  More importantly, many of Mackintosh’s works are outside of town, so visiting isn’t as easy as one might imagine.  All that being said, I put a pretty good dent in the quest.

The Box over Hill House

Mackintosh used the most modern material for the exterior of Hill House, concrete.  Sadly, the technology wasn’t yet sufficient to understand that Lime was imperative to the mix.  For this reason, Hill House had become so damp as to be a mere two years away from complete ruin. To protect the Hill House, the National Trust of Scotland constructed the Hill House Box, a protective steel frame structure covered in a chainmail mesh designed to protect the house from the harsh Scotland weather, allowing the walls to dry and prevent further damage.

I had read all about this in a historic preservation magazine and then promptly forgot about it; it was a thrill actually to come upon it and see it in situ.

Living Room of the Hill House. The wingback was not a Mackintosh design; it was the chair Mrs. Blackie liked to sit in at the fireplace.  Over the fireplace is Margaret’s The Sleeping Princess, commissioned by Mrs. Blackie in 1908, four years after the house was completed.

The Hill House is considered to be Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s domestic masterpiece; it was commissioned by Glasgow book publisher Walter Blackie.

Master Bedroom in Hill House with The ‘Skinny Ladies’, embroidered hangings by Margaret Macdonald

Although Mackintosh always gave his wife, Margaret Macdonald, credit, it doesn’t seem that the public does, even to this day.

Remember, you are half if not three-quarters in all my architectural work ….”

“Margaret has genius, I have only talent.”

– Charles Rennie Mackintosh on Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh

Queens Cross Church

The pulpit of Queen’s Cross Church

Queen’s Cross is the only church in the world designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh and then constructed. Commissioned in 1896 by the Free Church, its draw is its absolute simplicity.

The Willow Tea Room

The second floor of the Willow Tea Room on Sauchiehall Street

Mackintosh and Macdonald were kept very busy designing and creating tea houses for Ms. Kate Cranston, a brilliant businesswoman, a lover of the Mackintoshs’ work, and patron extraordinaire.

Two of the tea houses were completely restored by the Willow Tea Room Trust in the early 2000s, and profits go to the continued restoration and maintenance of the Tea Rooms.

The entry door to the Room Deluxe

The Room Deluxe served the creme de la creme of society.  It included aluminum-dust-finished chairs, a glass chandelier, and a gesso work by Margaret that now stands in the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum.

The Room Deluxe with the chairs and mirrors that circled the room

Margaret Macdonald’s Gesso for the Willow Tea Rooms titled O ye, all ye that walk in Willowwood

The Baldacchino in the Front Saloon

Plaster sculpted walls of the Front Saloon (the twinkle lights are not normally there, it is Christmas time)

The Lighthouse

The Lighthouse at 11 Mitchell Lane

The Lighthouse is Scotland’s Centre for Design and Architecture. The building formerly housed The Glasgow Herald, and was the first public commission completed by Mackintosh. Sadly it was still closed “due to covid” while I was there.

Ornamentation high up on the Lighthouse.

The ornamentation on the exterior of the lighthouse demonstrates the light touch of Mackintosh towards such displays.

The Mackintosh Home at The Hunterian

The Hunterian has reassembled the original interiors from the home the Mackintoshes rented, designed, and lived in from 1906 to 1914.

Once the re-assemblaged was accomplished, the home was furnished with the Mackintoshes’ own furniture.

The chairs in the dining room were Mackintosh’s first ‘high-back’ and were based on a design for Miss Cranston’s Tea Rooms.

The Studio Drawing Room was originally two rooms, altered by the Mackintoshes. The stenciled chairs and oval table were part of an ensemble called ‘The Rose Boudoir’ exhibited in Turin in 1902.

The Studio-Drawing Room

I found the black and blue in the guest room to be especially interesting.

The Hunterian is part of the University of Glasgow, which, thanks to a donation by the Mackintosh’s nephew, has a large collection of Mackintosh’s drawings, designs, and watercolors, along with over 40 works by Margaret.

Mackintosh was not highly appreciated in his own lifetime and has really only been brought to the for of architectural fame in the 21st century.  Fortunately, his works have survived and now hold a place of pride in Glasgow.

Northhampton, England

 England, United Kingdom
Jul 042024
 

July 4, 2024

The Northhampton Guildhall

We were only able to stand outside the Northhampton Guildhall, and even then, it was too huge to photograph in its entirety. The building, the third guildhall, was designed by Edward William Godwin in the Gothic Revival style and officially opened on May 17, 1864.

The stone carvings are the most impressive feature of the exterior.

Northampton is famous for its shoe industry. This is a carving of a cobbler in one of the column capitols.

78 Derngate

78 Derngate was Charles Renee Mackintosh’s final major commission. It was for Northampton model engineer W.J Bassett-Lowke. It is the only place outside Scotland where Mackintosh’s mature architectural and interior style can be seen in their original setting.

The original flooring and the windows that let in such beautiful sunlight to the kitchen

Mackintosh’s designs for the house are considered to be among the first examples of the Art Deco style in Britain.

The house is built on a slope, so the kitchen is one floor below the main level.

The kitchen

A fun old-fashioned tea kettle in the kitchen

The hallway leading from the kitchen  to the first floor.

The dining room on the first floor. The large pane while unusual for the times was part of the original design.

The latches on the windows

The dining room

Once coming through the front door you enter into a sitting room that is black with yellow patterns on the wall.

The fireplace in the sitting room.

Door latches in the sitting room

The chandelier in the sitting room

The small washing area of the master bedroom

The detail of the wallpaper around the sink area far more representative of what one thinks of Mackintosh rather than the black and yellow

The guest bedroom is similar to the one he designed for his own home.

The black and white fabric climbs the walls and is extended onto the ceiling.

The small tesserae in the bathroom is actually waterproof wallpaper

It was such a pleasure to have seen this home. It is so vastly different from so much of Mackintosh’s work in Glasgow.

Fun and Offbeat in London

 London, United Kingdom
Jan 032023
 

December 2022

 

I took a Christmas-Food-themed walking tour put on by London Walks.  When discussing Christmas geese, we were brought to this very interesting little spot in Leadenhall.

In the 1800s, Old Tom, a gander from Ostend, Belgium, became a fixture in the market. Somehow Tom never made it to anyone’s dinner table and became a regular fixture at the market. He lived to the age of 37 when he died of natural causes and was buried on the market site.  He was so famous the Times ran his obituary on April 16th, 1835; it read:

‘This famous gander, while in stubble,
Fed freely, without care or trouble:
Grew fat with corn and sitting still,
And scarce could cross the barn-door sill:
And seldom waddled forth to cool
His belly in the neighbouring pool.
Transplanted to another scene,
He stalk’d in state o’er Calais-green,
With full five hundred geese behind,
To his superior care consign’d,
Whom readily he would engage
To lead in march ten miles a-stage.
Thus a decoy he lived and died,
The chief of geese, the poulterer’s pride.’

The crest of the Bakers Company London

When discussing pies and such, we stopped in front of the Bakers Company, which is essentially a bakers guild.  The manager was locking up and invited us in for a history lesson.  The chance stop was a delight and education into the livery system of London. The Bakers’ Company can trace its origins back to 1155 and is the City of London’s second oldest recorded guild.

Not far from the Bakers Company building is the monument to the 1666 London Fire.

The fire started in Pudding Lane shortly after midnight on Sunday, September 2nd, and spread rapidly.

The 1677 Monument to the Great Fire of London stands near London Bridge

Constructed between 1671 and 1677, ‘The Monument’ was built on the site of St Margaret – New Fish Street, the first church to be destroyed by the Great Fire.

It snowed about 2″ in London on the 12th

*

In honor of gay pride and the mass shooting at the Orlando Gay Club in the US, London has installed some fun and supportive pedestrian traffic signals. There are several iterations, here are just two I was able to snap a picture of.

Pelicans of St. James Park

It was just a fluke I caught this fellow and his heron friend.  Due to the Avian Flu, all of the Pelicans of St. James Park have been rounded up and are being sequestered away from danger; I guess this guy didn’t get the memo. In 1664, pelicans were given to Charles II by a Russian Ambassador.  Over the course of history, there have been forty pelicans at St. James; there are presently six at the park: Sun, Moon, Star, Tiffany, Isla, and Gargi (who is actually wild and the only one without his wings clipped).

 

There are so many statues around London, as there are with any city with this much history.  It is worth admiring most of them, but hardly worth a discussion; these two are interesting for a story, and while not true, it is still fun.

Cromwell on the grounds of the House of Parliament

King Charles I over a door of St Margaret’s Church and across the street from Parliament

These two men as nemesis is a kind way of stating it.  For those not up on British history, Cromwell was responsible for the execution of King Charles. So as Cromwell sits on Parliament grounds with his head bowed in thought and, some say, “avoiding the gaze from King Charles” across the street, one has to wonder upon their relationship.

The problem with the myth of the statues is that Cromwell’s statue was erected in 1899 to a design by Sir William Thornycroft, and the bust of King Charles I wasn’t donated to the Church by The Society of King Charles the Martyr until 1956.

Have you ever thought about how long history has had postmarks? Fascinating, isn’t it?

The Signs of Lombard Street

The grasshopper was the family sign of Thomas Gresham, who lived here in the 16th century. Gresham founded the Royal Exchange, inspired by Antwerp’s Bourse. London’s first central trading hub was opened by Queen Elizabeth I in 1571.

The first record of a shop under the cat-a-fiddling was back in the reign of Henry VI (1422-16, then 1470-71). It was a second-hand clothes shop.

In 1290 King Edward I ruled that all Jews should be expelled from The City. Soon The City of London began to fill with Italians from Lombardy. Lombard Street and its environs became home to small goldsmiths or family-run banks.

Not all Londoners could read, and street numbers were only sporadically used from the early 1700s. So a hanging sign was a way to draw business to your shop.

Over the years, the signs disappeared, but on the occasion of Edward VII’s coronation, some were brought back.

A little bit of background. The City of London is a mere 1.12 square miles and is widely referred to simply as the City (differentiated from the phrase “the city of London” by capitalizing City). The City is a major business and financial center, with the Bank of England headquartered here.   The local authority for the City is the City of London Corporation, which is unique in the UK and has some unusual responsibilities, such as being the police authority.  The corporation is headed by the Lord Mayor of the City of London (an office separate from, and much older than, the Mayor of London).

Soho

One of the Noses of Soho

In 1997, artist Rick Buckley decided to stage a protest against the appearance of CCTV cameras across the streets of London. And the concept of The Seven Noses of Soho was born.  The artist did this all on the QT, so many were removed immediately by the authorities and the like, but several remained to the delight of people such as myself.  Buckley came clean in 2011, and a hunt for the seven that remain is a fun way to pass the time.  I want to thank my friend Susan for her patience in my search, and it was actually she who spotted this one on Great Windmill Street; we never did find the one on Marble Arch.  Next visit, I hope to search for Tim Fishlock’s ears in his installation “The Walls Have Ears”.

I read the story of John Snow and the Cholera pump as a teen; I was rather thrilled to trip upon it in my wanderings of Soho.

The Cholera Pump of John Snow

In August 1854, Soho was struck with a severe cholera outbreak. A doctor in the area, John Snow, believed that sewage dumped into rivers and cesspools near town wells could contaminate water supplies and cause cholera outbreaks.

He suspected that the source of the outbreak was the public water pump on Broad Street. He used information from local hospitals and public records and specifically asked residents if they had drunk water from the pump.

“Within 250 yards of the spot where Cambridge Street joins Broad Street there were upwards of 500 fatal attacks of cholera in 10 days… As soon as I became acquainted with the situation and extent of this irruption (sic) of cholera, I suspected some contamination of the water of the much-frequented street-pump in Broad Street.”

On September 7th, 1854, Snow took his findings to local officials and convinced them to take the handle off the pump. It didn’t take long before the outbreak came to an end.

Researchers later discovered that the public well had been dug right next to a cesspit. A cloth diaper of a baby, who had contracted cholera from another source, was the source of the outbreak.

This has been a wonderful two months spent in the UK, with most of it centered in London.  I always say it takes a lifetime to get to know great cities like London; I am glad to have had this time to explore and learn what I did, even if it leaves me wanting more.

Galloping through Glasgow

 Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom
Nov 022022
 

October 28, 2023

Driving south to Glasgow

A section of the Glenfinnan Viaduct

The Glenfinnan Viaduct is a railway viaduct on the West Highland Line in Glenfinnan, Inverness-shire. It was built between 1897 and 1901 and overlooks the Glenfinnan Monument and the waters of Loch Shiel.

The viaduct is built from mass concrete and has 21 semicircular spans of 50 feet. It is the longest concrete railway bridge in Scotland at 416 yards and was built on a curve of 792 feet.

The concrete used is mass concrete,  unlike reinforced concrete does not contain any metal reinforcement. It is formed by pouring concrete into formwork, resulting in a material very strong in compression but weak in tension

I visited the viaduct on the advice of an Edinburgh cab driver, it wasn’t until I was there that I found out about its connection to Harry Potter. After its appearance in Harry Potter, British Transport Police had to warn people not to walk on the viaduct after a handful of near misses with trains.

The Glenfinnan Monument on the edge of Loch Shiel was erected in 1814 and is dedicated to the soldiers of Loudon’s Highlanders, who fought in the Jacobite rising of 1745.

Castle Stalker

Castle Stalker is a four-story tower house believed to have been built around 1440. The name “Stalker” comes from the Gaelic Stalcaire, meaning “hunter” or “falconer”. The island castle is one of the best preserved medieval tower houses to survive in western Scotland.  I appreciated most that it was “The Castle Aaaaarrrrrrggghhh” in the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Glasgow

This visit I have one day in Glasgow so rather than spend it visiting Charles Rennie Mackintosh (I will be back in December to do that) I decided to just wander, find interesting buildings and look into another well-known architect of Scotland, Alexander “Greek” Thomson.

Alexander Thomson began work in 1834, as a clerk in a lawyer’s office in Glasgow. One of their clients was an architect, Robert Foote, who was impressed by seeing Thomson’s drawings and took him on as an articled apprentice.  After a career made up of eclectic designs he adopted the pure Ionic Greek style that he is best known for.

The Grosvenor Building

Shortly after this was finished it burned down and was rebuilt in 1864.  A second fire ravaged the building in 1901 and it was rebuilt again.  In 1967 a third fire destroyed the interior of the building.  After a major overhaul in 1992, it was converted to offices and now only the facade remains.

Thomson’s adoration of Greek style is quite obvious

Grecian Chambers Building

The Grecian Chambers were completed in 1865 and is considered one of Thomson’s best examples of commercial architecture.  A major fire in 1902 saw the roof rebuilt, but the rest of the structure survived relatively unscathed.

Details of the Grecian Chambers Building

Details of the Grecian Chambers Building

Several more of Thomson’s buildings were covered in scaffolding, I do hope to see them next time.

Glasgow City Council Chambers

The Glasgow City Council Chambers was designed by the Scottish architect William Young and construction began in 1882. The building was inaugurated by Queen Victoria in August 1888 and the first council meeting held within the chambers took place in October 1889

The exterior of the building is in the Beaux-arts style, with a vast range of ornate decoration, used to express the wealth and prosperity of the city. The exterior sculpture is by James Alexander Ewing.

Marble staircase in the Glasgow City Council Chambers Building

When describing this building many say “more marble than the Vatican” it has even been used as a stand-in for the Vatican in films. The staircases are said to be Western Europe’s largest marble staircases and are of Carrera marble.

One of two stunning marble staircases in the Glasgow City Council Building

The marble tile ceiling of the Glasgow City Council Chamber Building

Arch Gates leading to the Glasgow City Council Chambers

The City Halls are part of a market complex designed by John Carrick in 1882, but the grand hall itself was designed by George Murray and opened in 1841. It was the first hall suitable for large gatherings and concerts to be built in the City.

 

The Central Railway

Built by the Caledonian Railway the building opened in stages from 1894.

Central Railway Station interior

 

St Enoch Subway Station

The original St. Enoch Subway Station building housed both a booking office and the headquarters of the original Glasgow District Subway Railway Company. This was (and is) the subway’s most distinctive building. The design is Flemish Renaissance, and late Victorian out of red sandstone. It was designed by James Miller in 1896.

Red Sandstone Buildings of Glasgow

Tron church/theater clock

In Glasgow, the name ‘Trongate’ first appeared around 1560. It referred to the “tron”– the beam with which trading goods were officially weighed when they entered the city walls. For the next three hundred years, this area came to be at the heart of the city’s mercantile and financial activity– hence Merchant City.

A church was originally built on the site in 1529. It is now the Tron Theatre.

The Tron Cherub by Scottish-born artist Kenny Hunter

Atlas Figures at 152 Argyle Street in Glasgow

These figures sit on a building erected in 1906 as the Stewart and MacDonald building.  I wish I could find out more about them as they are truly charming.

*

Random fun graffiti

Phyllis Archibald was the sculptor of these figures at 22-24 St Enoch Square. The building dates to 1906.

Duke of Wellington

The statue, located just outside of Glasgow’s Gallery of Modern Art was erected in 1844. Apparently, during the 1980’s, passersby began placing a traffic cone on the Duke’s head. No one is sure who started the tradition, but the bright orange hat has become so common that most have come to accept it as the standard look of the statue.

As Proud As… sits in Princes Square and is by Shona Kinloch – A play on – as proud as a peacock, and yes he is naked.

To end this post I will tie it in with my home town San Francisco.

Just off the Trongate, is this neon sign with “Empire” in reverse. Created by Glaswegian artist Douglas Gordon, it pays homage to Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 Vertigo. Empire is the name of the hotel where the character played by Kim Novak resides and that is in San Francisco.