When you visit Glasgow you see the influence of Charles Rennie Mackintosh everywhere. He was a local architect, artist and designer, whose reputation was quick to spread way beyond his home city. He was born in Glasgow in 1868 and was apprenticed to an architect. As well as this he enrolled for evening classes at the Glasgow School of Art .
He went on to design the new home for the Glasgow School of Art which is an iconic example of his work. It was such a shock when in May this year the building was quite badly damaged in a fire.
My Mum has always loved his designs and has several pieces from mugs to pictures at home but I hadn’t realised he was so famous and was such an important figure in Scotland. We’ve visited the tea rooms he designed which are filled with examples of his work, a fabulous place with gorgeous food 🙂
The church that Les Sirenes female chamber choir from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland will be performing in on Friday 12th December was also designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh and is just a wonderful place to perform. The Mackintosh Church is a beautiful building which provides a fantastic backdrop for our Christmas concert.
I am so excited to be singing alongside my friends and fellow students in the choir, the Christmas concerts that our music director, Andrew Nunn, puts together are always so uplifting and full of fabulous music just right to put you in the Christmas spirit.
It’s been a sold out event for the past two years so if you’re in Glasgow and need a jump start to your Christmas we’d love to see you there next Friday. You can book tickets at the RCS box office.
Only ten minutes from Glasgow City Centre I’ve discovered the ‘House for an Art Lover’, in 1989 a team of architects led by Professor Andy MacMilan, then head of architecture at Glasgow School of Art, had the idea to build the house interpreting Mackintosh’s drawings from a competition entry Mackintosh made to a German magazine in the winter of 1901. House for an Art Lover is a charitable company whose primary purpose is the stimulation of public interest in Art, Design and Architecture.
The Music room, Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his wife provided detailed interior designs for the double-height Entrance Hall, Dining room, Oval Room and Music room you can see below. There is a café, gallery and shop and it’s open all year around..
