Charles Rennie Mackintosh's Ingram Street Tearooms

Glasgow Museums is currently assessing what will be needed to research and preserve the Charles Rennie Mackintosh interiors of the Ingram Street Tearooms for future public display.

Miss Cranston's Tearooms on Ingram Street in Glasgow City Centre contained a unique set of interiors designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh between 1900 and 1912. The tearooms were in use as catering facilities between 1886 and 1950, first by Miss Cranston, and later - from 1930 - by Cooper's & Co.

Little photographic evidence of the tearooms over these years is known to exist. From the 1950s the rooms were owned by Glasgow City Council, they became used for storage and a souvenir shop, and were finally removed in 1971. They are now the only original set of Mackintosh tearoom interiors to survive.

Work began on the restoration of the Ladies' Luncheon Room in 1993 for an exhibition on the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh. The exhibition was held in Glasgow in 1996, later toured in the USA, and proved to be a huge success, stimulating interest in the rest of the rooms.

Glasgow Museums has now restored the Chinese Room and the Cloister Room with funding from the Scottish Executive, the Heritage Lottery Fund, and Donald and Jeanne Kahn.

The Ingram Street Tearooms were designed for Miss Catherine Cranston, who opened her first tearoom, the Crown Luncheon Room, in 1878 on Argyle Street. Her Ingram Street tearoom was opened on 16 September 1886, followed by new tearooms in Buchanan Street in 1897 and Argyle Street in 1898.

Miss Cranston employed the designer George Walton to work on the design of her Buchanan Street tearooms, and she brought in Mackintosh to produce some stencilled murals. The two men worked again on the Argyle Street tearooms, this time Mackintosh designing the furniture. Mackintosh returned to Argyle Street in 1906 to design the Dutch kitchen, which was a basement conversion.

Miss Cranston commissioned Mackintosh to design more tearooms for her expanding business. He completed the Willow Tearooms on Sauchiehall Street in 1904.

Mackintosh's work on the Ingram Street Tearooms dates to 1900, when he was commissioned as sole designer. This was just after he and Margaret Macdonald were married, and the two of them worked together for the first time. Major work was done on Ingram Street Tearooms over the years, until Mackintosh's last work on there was done in 1911 when he worked on a redesign of the Cloister Room.

Glasgow Corporation bought the Ingram Street building containing the tearooms in 1950. The interiors were moved to a Corporation store in 1971 before the building was demolished. Before they were removed to the store, art historian Roger Billcliffe led a team to record the interiors. The team included Mackintosh's old firm of Honeyman and Keppie, and they made drawings, photographed the unfurnished rooms, and noted the position of each piece of panelling.

Glasgow Corporation transferred the tearooms to Glasgow Museums in 1978, and they lay in storage for the next 15 years.

A team of Glasgow Museums staff is now assessing what will be needed to research and preserve the rooms for public display. It is an exciting project, and we hope it will lead us to greater insights into the creative genius who was Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

Images
View some images of the tearooms by following the slideshow link on the right hand side of this page. Images are approximately 20 to 65kb in size, and are best viewed at a screen resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels. You can find out how to change your screen resolution by visiting our Accessibility page.

Appeal for help
The Tearooms Project wants to hear from members of the public who could offer them information and recollections about the rooms. Did you, or a friend or family member, frequent the tearooms or work there in some capacity? Can you remember how the rooms were used, decorated and furnished?

The tearooms were sometimes the venue for special events such as wedding receptions, do you have any photographs taken in or outside these tearooms at 205-217 Ingram Street?

The team would be grateful for any information that could assist with long-term preservation of these important interiors.

If you can help provide information, photographs, memorabilia or even cine film, please contact Alison Brown on 0141 287 0510, email alison.brown@cls.glasgow.gov.uk.

Updates
You can read project updates by following the links on the top right hand side of this page.

Book
A book, Glasgow's Hidden Treasure: Charles Rennie Mackintosh's Ingram Street Tearooms, has been produced to highlight the work done on the Tearooms so far, and is available from Glasgow Museums bookshops, other bookshops, and online at Amazon, priced £5.99.

More about Mackintosh
You can find out more about Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his work by following the links on the right hand side of this page.