In the Land of Mackintosh

First of all, Cindy has asked me to tell you about fly tipping. We had to ask someone why we kept seeing signs that warned against doing that. Fly tipping is a lovely colloquialism meaning littering--of which we have seen little evidence, despite the fact that we've seen fewer trash bins on the streets. So there you have it: no more fly tipping!

Glasgow. Just a short train ride from Edinburgh, but sort of a world of difference between the feel of the two cities. We landed in Glasgow at around 9am, found a train to Bellgrove Station, closest to our Airbnb place, and came up into an area that reminded me of many NYC streets in the early morning. It looked kind of gritty, but after walking two blocks to find a breakfast place, we came to a fancy Italian restaurant named Coia's. Full service, jazz playing in the background, impeccable and generous service...a real winner! After that we walked back to our host's place, where the (tiny) room we would occupy had just moments before been vacated.

We were able to leave our bags and get on with the day. We headed toward downtown, with the intent of getting to the university and to the Charles Rennie Mackintosh House (our first and most important goal for our single day here).

On our way, we encountered numerous contemporary murals along with great old (now derelict) buildings:

The following murals all are on Duke Street on University of Strathclyde buildings.

What was amazing to us was the amount of old building restoration that is going on--and how much it's needed. Everywhere we went, we saw scaffolding. Time and neglect have been hard on so many structures. It's inspiring to see how well trees can thrive growing from a crack in old stone.

After getting lost a few times, and asking for help from many lovely people, we arrived at the University of Glasgow campus, which seems to be in the process of a full rebuild/restoration. This facilitated our total confusion, thanks to differences from the map we were using. By the time we finally reached the Hunterian Gallery and the Mackintosh House, we had lost probably an hour--BUT we saw more of Glasgow than we might have, so there's that.

Our perseverance paid off. This will definitely remain one of our most lasting memories from this trip. Cindy hadn't really known of Mackintosh before this. I knew his work somewhat, due to a longtime love of Art Nouveau and the Arts and Crafts movement. We fell in love with his house, which was almost lost forever when the university chose to demolish it in the 1960s to build some (to them) more important building. The head of the art school knew how important that house was, and he persuaded the university to allow (and support) him to meticulously deconstruct and store the entire interior and belongings of the house. The university was then somehow persuaded to support a shell of a structure into which the house was reconstructed. What an exquisite place. Here are just a few of the photos I took:

Dining room (most of the furnishings were in the original house; all are of that time and made by Mackintosh). The wall design is a copy of what they found in the stored items.

Mirror frame made by Mackintosh's wife and design/art partner, Margaret MacDonald.

A window in the entry hallway

Living room--everything you see was designed and built by Mackintosh and MacDonald.

Silver square hanging above fireplace in the bedroom, made by MacDonald.

One of two side-by-side wardrobes; stained glass by MacDonald.

The house--of course, the original was a Victorian house. This "shell" was designed by a famed architect whose name now escapes me.

From the Hunterian and the university, we headed back toward downtown and found a great Italian place for lunch. Walked through Kelvingrove Park and through an 18th century planned development, which still looks pretty upper crust today. On out of the park after a selfie

--and back into downtown with some good art and architecture viewing

Juxtaposition of the old and new

We were reminded of the Concord CA art installation that ultimately was removed.

Glasgow's finest Art Deco building.

But having been to the Mackintosh House, Cindy and I were on a mission: the Mackintosh at the Willow Tea Rooms.

This was a double win. The Willow Tea Rooms were established by Catherine Cranston, an astute entrepreneur who built a thriving empire in the late 1800s/early 1900s. She contracted with Mackintosh to design her tearooms, culminating in the Willow Tea Rooms, which opened in 1903. Cranston was passionate about women's suffrage, the arts, and independence of thought.

Shortly after Cranston's husband died in 1917, she withdrew from business, and at some point after that the Willow closed. But in the 2010s the Willow Tea Rooms Trust was formed to restore the tea room, and it opened on September 7, 2018. It is a beautiful space, restored with as much attention and love to the original and its creators as has been the Mackintosh House. The museum exhibit there is excellent, as was the tea we had at the end of our visit.

From here we went in search of the Glasgow mural trail with not a lot of success. Sadly, some of the ones we found had been tagged (yep, happens here too).

Then we happened upon the Peacock Building! Wow. Modern Art Nouveau at its most flamboyant:

Not only was this building (now Prince's Square) covered with feathers/leaves (?) on the front, they went all the way around the back. If you can expand this pic, do so to see the close up of the peacock and his frills. Inside, the building has been turned into a mall with lots of shops and restaurants--and many artistic touches.

And around the back, in a little square, there was a fascinating fellow with ... his pet peacock?

It really was time for us to head back to that night's domicile and our chosen dinner place (conveniently half a block from our house). We passed a few more interesting structures:

Mercat Cross--traditionally these were places for great proclamations as well as market centers.

Tolbooth Steeple--built in 1627, formerly attached to the old city council HQ, which was torn down in the 1920s.

And then there is the Tennent's brewery, which looks as if it's the Annheuser-Busch for all of Scotland. HUGE factory setup. I have no idea what kind of ales they make, but I love that they have decorated the long brick wall at the edge of the property. I didn't take photos of all of the sections, but here are a couple of samples:

After dinner Cindy and I shoehorned ourselves into our tiny room and slept well. Woke up early enough to take advantage of the breakfast and pleasant chat offered by our host Thomas before leaving for the train station, where we almost immediately got into trouble with misunderstanding where the train we boarded was going. Relying on the kindness of strangers along the way, we made it to Glasgow Central, where we were able to board the train we had reserved seats on months ago. Totally lucky for us, we had reserved the only train leaving for London that morning, because there was an "industrial action" on that line that day with service severely limited. And lucky for us we had chosen to travel on that day and not on Saturday, because there was no service then. Whew! We made it through our first industrial action unscathed. May we continue to have the god of travel on our side for the next two months.

Otherwise the trip from Glasgow to Bath was relatively uneventful, even with the need to get from one train station in London to another, which required walking from one Underground station to another.

My last image from Glasgow as I prepare for tales of our Bath adventures:

Love those fish...

We loved what little we saw of Scotland, and we loved the folks we met there even more. Too bad we couldn't understand them a lot of the time.

Onward!!