Charles Rennie Mackintosh is almost synonymous with Glasgow - his architecture framing the streets and aesthetic of our city.
He was behind the design of Mackintosh at the Willow - an afternoon tea spot that was brought back to life in 2018.
He was behind the design of Mackintosh at the Willow - an afternoon tea spot that was brought back to life in 2018.
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00:00 My name is Heather and we are here at Macintosh at the Willow.
00:03 And yeah, there we are.
00:05 I'm one of the tour guides and I'm also a retail assistant here at the tearooms.
00:09 So it was an entrepreneur, Glasgow entrepreneur here called Celia Sinclair.
00:14 Celia Sinclair Thornquist MBE.
00:17 And she was walking down Suckey Hall Street and she saw the for sale sign outside the building
00:22 and she said, absolutely not.
00:23 This has to be a heritage site.
00:26 This should be open again.
00:28 So she founded the Willow Tearoom Trust and from there they managed to raise just shy
00:31 of £10 million to do all the restorative work of the building.
00:36 And yeah, we're very thankful that they did.
00:38 Just look at the place.
00:39 It's absolutely stunning.
00:40 So Miss Cranston was a great entrepreneur here in Glasgow.
00:43 She had four tearooms in total.
00:45 This was the fourth and final one and the only one designed by Charles Rennie Macintosh and
00:49 his wife, Margaret MacDonald.
00:52 The brief for the tearoom or one of the briefs for the tearoom was fairy tale.
00:57 And I think you can see that here when you join us at Macintosh at the Willow.
01:00 It's absolutely just this whole place is just stunning.
01:03 So that's kind of where it started from.
01:05 We opened originally in 1903.
01:07 And as I say, Miss Cranston had other tearooms across the city.
01:10 So people really knew who Miss Cranston was at this point.
01:13 And she was really infamous.
01:14 She would wear a crinoline hooped skirt and yeah, just go walking around the city.
01:20 So everyone knew who she was.
01:21 So all these tearooms were very, very, very popular.
01:25 The Macintoshes really take from nature.
01:27 They were kind of training in that sort of arts and crafts time.
01:30 And then of course, explored into art nouveau, which is just beautiful.
01:34 So Macintosh, there's a rose that is sort of attributed to Macintosh.
01:39 Some people call it the Glasgow Rose, other people call it Macintosh Rose.
01:43 Margaret tends to, Margaret MacDonald tends to use the rose throughout her artwork too.
01:47 So yeah, the rose element comes in here too.
01:50 But the Willow Tearoom actually is called the Willow Tearoom due to Suckey Hall Street
01:53 itself.
01:54 Alley of the Willows is what Suckey Hall actually means.
01:59 So yeah, people think it's our china when they come to see the blue willow china that's
02:02 on the tables there.
02:03 They reckon that that's where we got the name from.
02:05 It wasn't at all.
02:07 It's actually due to nature itself.
02:09 It's due to the willow trees that would have been here on Suckey Hall Street initially,
02:13 way back when.
02:14 I think he's really just synonymous with Glasgow now.
02:16 I mean, we have so many international guests that come to the tearoom and they know Macintosh
02:21 really, really well.
02:22 And I think it's time for Glasgow to learn and understand just a wee bit more about them
02:27 too.
02:28 We think we know a lot about them, but there's still a lot more to discover.
02:31 I've been working here now for just going two years and I've learned so, so much more
02:35 than I ever thought I'd knew about Macintosh before, more than I've ever really read before
02:39 as well.
02:40 So yeah, coming into these tearooms, you get to explore that too with our guided tours
02:44 that happen at 9, 10 and 11.
02:47 And we also have an interactive exhibition as well where you can learn a wee bit more
02:51 about Macintosh and of course Miss Cranston, but mainly just the tearoom in general as
02:56 well and about Glasgow in 1903 and what was the tearoom's significance of that.
03:00 So yeah, there's lots of things to explore here at Macintosh of the Willow.
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