Willow Tea Rooms, Mackintosh Glasgow Visitor Centre, Sauchiehall Street Interior, Scotland

Willow Tea Rooms Renewal

23 July 2020

Mackintosh at the Willow News

Mackintosh at the Willow

Help Save Mackintosh at the Willow is live on Crowdfunder.

Salon De luxe – beautifully restored, one of the most elegant interiors in Glasgow:

photos courtesy of The Willow Tea Rooms Trust

With one day left the trust has met their £20,000 target, so far reaching £20,655. This fund request is to allow the premises to survive through lockdown.

This historic building is of the greatest significance for Scotland’s design heritage.

It is the only tea room where Rennie Mackintosh was in control of the exterior and the interior and his arrangement of the internal spaces and his designs for the furniture are unparalleled in his designs for tea rooms.

The building is recognised internationally for its importance as the only surviving tea room designed in its entirety by Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

The Willow Tea Rooms building at 217 Sauchiehall Street was purchased in 2014 in order to prevent the forced sale of the building, closure of the Tea Rooms and loss of its contents to collectors.

Salon de Luxe door detail of rose in glass:

photos courtesy Rachel Keenan Photography

It is now in the ownership of ‘The Willow Tea Rooms Trust’, a registered charity.

The Willow Tea Rooms Trust were able to re-open the historic tea rooms building in June 2018, as Mackintosh at the Willow, with the addition of meeting rooms, an interactive exhibition and retail store in the adjoining building next door.

The official opening, on the 7th September 2018, was performed by The Duke and Duchess of Rothesay.

Since then the Trust have received numerous awards crediting the extensive restoration project and have worked hard to support Mackintosh at the Willow’s training efforts with their young team, many of which have come through the Princes Trust’s Hospitality programme.

There has been a focus on training and creative learning and education within schools and the local community and you can see more about what they have been doing here: Creative Learning and Education.

On the first floor of Mackintosh at the Willow, guests can find the Salon de Luxe. Aptly named for its opulent furnishings and rich décor, the Salon de Luxe is an intimate space full of glittering mirrors, silk dados and purple velvet.

The room is arguably one of Mackintosh’s most extravagant and is said to have been designed in creative partnership with Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh.