The week before the fire that destroyed his Glasgow School of Art, the 150th anniversary of the designer’s birth was celebrated with a preview of the £10m restoration of the Willow Tea Rooms.While the art school was seen by experts as the finest achievement of Glasgow’s best-known and visionary architect, many of the public will view the tea rooms as the place that defined the Mackintosh style.
The original 1903 Willow Tea Rooms were designed in their entirety by Mackintosh and he had total control inside and out.
He remodelled the exterior of the 1860s tenement block and oversaw the interior decorative elements, right down to the design of the cutlery and the uniform of the waitresses.
However, Glasgow was largely indifferent to the genius in its midst and it was businesswoman Kate Cranston, the tea room queen, who received the plaudits.
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Read more at BBC: The tea rooms that brought Mackintosh back to life – BBC News
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