Date/Time
Date(s) - 18th Mar 2026
14:00-15:30
Location
St Matthew's Church
Categories
Charles Rennie Mackintosh is probably most well known as the designer of The Glasgow School of Art and The Glasgow Tea Rooms but this talk will demonstrate his unique approach to the home as a place where art and daily life were inseparable, where everything worked together.
In his own city of Glasgow Mackintosh and his collaborator and wife, Margaret, were largely ignored. Their work was seen as baffling to a public who still valued historical styles in architecture.
However, in Vienna in 1900, Mackintosh was celebrated and greeted with enthusiasm when he took part in the 8th Exhibition of the Vienna Secession and entered his designs into an ‘ideas competition to design a grand residence for an art lover’. Although unbuilt in his lifetime, a house based on his designs was later constructed in a park in Glasgow in 1989-96. (House For An Art Lover)
Mackintosh did complete a house overlooking the Clyde (The Hill House) in 1902-04 for the Glasgow
publisher, Walter Blackie, which is now recognised as one of the outstanding modernist houses of the 20th century.
He worked on ambitious designs for interiors of Kate Cranston’s Glasgow Tea Rooms but when The First World War broke out commissions for architecture dried up. Mackintosh moved to England and produced some remarkable designs for interiors in a house in Northampton (78 Derngate) for a Northampton engineer with an interest in Modernism.
All three of these houses can be visited.
Fiona James makes a welcome return to The Friends as our speaker.
PLEASE NOTE THIS TALK IS ON A WEDNESDAY.
Location: St Matthews Church, 44 Clarence St, Cheltenham GL50 3PL
Cost per person including tea/coffee and cake: FoTW members £11, non-members £13
Non-members welcome.
If you have any questions about the event or booking please phone Alison on 01242 519413 or Sue Reeves on 01242 675497 or email events@friendsofthewilson.org.uk.
Please book using one of the following options:
- On-line bookings with a debit or credit card can be made using the form below.
- Bank transfer – please email events@friendsofthewilson.org.uk to let us know you have sent your transfer so that we can send you a booking confirmation. Bank transfers should be made to Friends of The Wilson Sort Code 30-91-87 Account 00005816. The reference must include your surname plus as much of the event title as will fit, for example SMITH MACKINTOSH
- Cheque – please complete a booking form (download here ) and post it with your cheque. Please make cheques payable to Friends of The Wilson and send with a SAE or clearly written email address to Mrs Alison Pascoe, 77 Naunton Lane, Cheltenham, GL53 7AZ.
Places are not confirmed until payment is received.
Terms & Conditions: You are undertaking this event at your own risk.
If you have any problems with our booking system please email events@friendsofthewilson.org.uk and we will be happy to help.