Willow Tea Rooms

Catherine Cranston was apparently queen of the Victorian tea rooms in Glasgow. She engaged Mackintosh to design four different establishments, but only one, the Willow, survives. It has been returned to its Victorian/Mackintosh look, and includes both the very popular and crowded tea rooms as well as a Mackintosh museum/gift shoppe on the ground floor. The room you want to see, and possibly dine in, is the Room De Luxe on the (British) first floor. We had lunch there after our tour of the School of Art.

The Willow Tea Rooms

On the breakfast menu, Vicki pointed out the traditional
Scottish porridge, served with a shot of Drambuie!

For half a nano-second, I considered the traditional haggis, neeps, and tatties
(or is it haggis neeps and tatties?), but remembered my previous injunction
that HN&T is a dish to enjoy before ever reading the list of ingredients;
I opted instead for the above St. Andrews Platter, smoked Scottish salmon,
trout, and shrimp; Vicki had the burger

Panning around the Room De Luxe, photos by Vicki

Ditto

Ditto again

The 1st floor tea room

Glasgow School of Art

The next stop on our Mackintosh tour was the Glasgow School of Art. Mackintosh designed it at the turn of the century. What is truly remarkable is that he was only 28 at the same, a very junior employee at the firm, and had only recently "graduated" from GSA, having been a night student there for several years. Someone at GSA very definitely had an eye for genius and a willingness to take big risks. Unfortunately, the school has a no interior photos policy (privacy of students and faculty) and so what little I have is outside. The best room on the inside, we thought, was the library, a small photo of which I grabbed off the GSA site. Mackintosh was a bit of a control freak--great architects are like this, I surmise--it was not enough to design the entire building; he had to do all its contents too, furniture, even the signage. For the Willow Tea Rooms (next stop), he even did the silverware, towels, tables and chairs, all now quite famous.

Burrell Collection, 2013, Glasgow

We were impressed by the Burrell Collection in 2009. It was the first of several large one-person collections we have visited in Europe, and we were sure to return in 2013.

Entrance to the Burrell...purpose-built, just to house and
display the Collection; but, as we'll see shortly, the building
has some problems...

One of the emblems of the place, the nearly
life-size Ming Dynasty figure of Luohan

Look familiar, Rebecca? Denby's just down the road a bit,
Darbyshire, near Chatsworth

Rembrandt self-portrait #1,729

15th century Burgundian tapestry, a rabbit hunt; "you
wousy wabbit"

13th century German, Abraham, Isaac, etc.

Never miss a Cranach

One of the things we like about the Burrell and other such
"small" museums is the great variety of objects...here,
the "Warwick Vase," long held at Warwick Castle, originally
2nd century Roman, found at Tivoli, Hadrian's Villa; seats 8

The thing that most impressed us this visit
was this 20 foot long silk/silver embroidered
petticoat, 400 years old, a miracle of
preservation; a gift of Charles I to one of his
courtiers; thought to have been originally a
gift of James I to his wife, Anne of Denmark

Detail

Another

Thus

We also did the Impressionism exhibit

The sad thing about the Burrell now is that
there is widespread rain leakage from the roof
and potential damage to the collection

Word is the museum will be closed for two years for repairs

Sweet Pea

Sweet P is our grand-daughter, Penelope, so it was sort of special to walk into the garden adjoining The House for an Art Lover and see the Scottish National Sweet Pea Trials underway...they are gorgeous, delicate little flowers, like our Sweet P...

House For An Art Lover, 2

I was somewhat less into Art Appreciation here than was Vicki, and somehow the camera's eye wandered...

The House for an Art Lover is in a city park and just behind the House is a set of
artificial ski slopes, something new to me

Gents' Room for an Art Lover

Cafe/Restaurant for an Art Lover

Gift Shoppe for an Art Lover...OK, I'll spare you the others

Here I am in the Concentration Booth for an
Art Lover, being punished--made to listen to
the audio-guide--for inattention and disrespect

Here we are in the Museum, etc., looking at a photograph of Mackintosh and his
group (groupies?), modestly calling themselves the "Immortals"; the Scots are truly
wild and crazy persons

What is the French word for seven? Oh yes, "Menage a Sept"; the one looking away
is his eventual wife, Margaret McDonald, also his muse, collaborator, and, in his
words (paraphrasing), the one with the ideas

House For An Art Lover, 1

Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Remember that name. It definitely will be on the quiz after our Glasgow posts.

Students of this blog know we are fans of Art Nuvo and Art Deco. Mackintosh is definitely in that realm, especially if you factor in Scottish severity, a little Bauhaus, a little neo-Nippon. There are elements of all in his work, although he preceded all but Art Nouveau. He is revered in Glasgow about the same as Gaudi in Barcelona.

The first of his works we visited was the "House for an Art Lover." It was built only recently. Mackintosh had submitted plans for it to a German architectural periodical in the early 20th century, and publication of the plans attracted widespread attention. But the house was never built. Only in recent years did Glasgow city fathers and architectural historians decide to build the house, in part a Mackintosh museum and shrine, in part a conference/meeting center. (Also available for weddings, wakes, bar mitzvahs, Christmas parties, etc.) Basically what you have here, apart from the external shots, are an entry hall, a dining room, a music room, and a withdrawing room/game room (perhaps). They are all reasonably obvious, so I'll spare the narration.