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Summary

Description

Circa 1875. Commercial building in Renaissance manner, formerly containing Miss Cranston's Lunch and Tea Rooms, by Charles Rennie Mackintosh (of Honeyman, Keppie and Mackintosh), 1900-12. Four-storey and attic; ten-bays to Ingram Street, 11-bays to Miller Street. Ashlar, channelled at first floor. West bay and return bay to Miller Street slightly advanced with giant Corinthian pilasters above second floor and tripartites in each storey. Second floor windows architraved with consoled cornices and blind balustrades. Main cornice modillioned and consoled. Pedimented dormers and wallhead stacks linked by balustrade. French roof to angle bay, now missing ironwork; slates. Plate-glass glazing pattern to sash and case windows.

Statement of Special Interest

The furnishings, fixtures and fittings were removed to Glasgow Corporation Planning Department stores, around 1970 and transferred to Glasgow Museums around 1974 (Mackintosh Architecture). In 2014 the majority of the interiors were in storage but some were on display in the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum (Mackintosh Architecture).

Born in 1849, Catherine Cranston was a prominent businesswoman and an important patron of design in Glasgow. Her brother Stuart first pioneered the idea of a tea room. As a seller of tea leaves, he offered samples to potential customers, which evolved into premises with tables and food to accompany the tea. With urban prosperity and the rise of the Temperance Movement, tea rooms became increasingly popular during the late 19th century, particularly among fashionable middle class women. Often artistically styled, by the 1880s tea rooms had become a celebrated feature of Glasgow, with their popularity spreading to London and Edinburgh.

Miss Cranston began as a restauranteur in 1878 but soon moved into the tea room business. After her marriage in 1892 she had the financial backing to expand and went on to establish a suite of successful artistic tea rooms in Glasgow city centre. Wanting to add interest, she commissioned largely unknown designers and architects (George Walton and Charles Rennie Mackintosh) to carry out the internal design. Mackintosh was introduced to Miss Cranston in 1896, as work on her Buchanan Street Tea Room was proceeding under George Walton. He was first commissioned to provide the striking murals at Buchannan Street but after 1898, Mackintosh provided all of the future design work for Miss Cranston. In addition to the Ingram Street Tea Rooms, other highlights included The Willow Tea Rooms (LB33173), The Dutch Kitchen in Argyle Street (LB32616) and the interiors for her home, Hous'hill (now demolished).

Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868-1928) was born in Glasgow and is regarded internationally as one of the leading architects and designers of the 20th century. He became known as a pioneer of Modernism, although his architecture took much inspiration from Scottish Baronial, and Scottish and English vernacular forms and their reinterpretation. The synthesis of modern and traditional forms led to a distinctive form of Scottish arts and crafts design, known as 'The Glasgow Style'. This was developed in collaboration with contemporaries Herbert McNair, and the sisters Francis and Margaret Macdonald (who would become his wife in 1900), who were known as 'The Four'. The Glasgow Style is now synonymous with Mackintosh and the City of Glasgow.

Mackintosh's work is wide-ranging and includes public, educational and religious buildings to private houses, interior decorative schemes and sculptures. He is associated with over 150 design projects, ranging from being the principal designer, to projects he was involved with as part of the firm of John Honeyman & Keppie (Honeyman, Keppie & Mackintosh from 1901). The most important work during this partnership was the Glasgow School of Art (LB33105), which was built in two phases from 1897 and culminated in the outstanding library of 1907. Other key works include the Willow Tea Rooms (LB33173), the Glasgow Herald Building (now The Lighthouse) (LB33087) and Hill House (LB34761), which display the modern principles of the German concept of 'Gesamtkunstwerk', meaning the 'synthesis of the arts'. This is something that Mackintosh applied completely to all of his work, from the exterior to the internal decorative scheme and the furniture and fittings.

Mackintosh left Glasgow in 1914, setting up practice in London the following year. Later he and Margaret moved to France, where until his death, his artistic output largely turned to textile design and watercolours.

Listed building record revised in 2019.

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