19 Dec 2024

Funding win marks anniversary of Mackintosh acquisition

The Trust’s Chief Executive Philip Long OBE and President Jackie Bird receive the news that the Trust’s Mackintosh Illuminated project will receive funding support from The National Lottery Heritage Fund. | image: Peter Devlin

A generous £1.1 million package of development funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund has been pledged to the National Trust for Scotland as the first step towards a highly ambitious project to celebrate the genius of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Margaret Macdonald.

The news comes almost a year after the Trust worked with the Trustees of Mackintosh at the Willow and acquired the tearoom on Sauchiehall Street. The tearoom was struggling due to the impact of the pandemic and two fires at the Glasgow School of Art.

After adding Mackintosh at the Willow to its portfolio, which also includes the Hill House in Helensburgh, the Trust cares for two of the couple’s most important surviving, publicly accessible masterpieces of design.

These incredible places will be the focus of Mackintosh Illuminated, a project that will spotlight the design duo, sharing, celebrating and inspiring as many as possible with their creative genius and the beauty of their creations. The development funding announced today is the first stage towards a wider £7.3 million award from The National Lottery Heritage Fund.

A tea room with lots of square tables, covered in white linen with a glass top over each. The chairs are in the ladderback style designed by Mackintosh. Gauze panels cover the windows, which feature Mackintosh stencilled designs.

A view looking down on the Hill House from one of the rooftop walkways inside the box

The project will help make Mackintosh and Macdonald better known and appreciated, internationally and at home, by creating an online learning resource and an expanded programme of property-based community and education work in Helensburgh and Glasgow.

The project also encourages more people to visit both sites to get a richer picture of the pair’s skill and versatility. By working in partnership with other Mackintosh stakeholders in Glasgow and more widely, this support will aid in organising celebrations for the 2028 anniversary of Mackintosh’s death and the 160th anniversary of his birth.

Funding will also enable the Trust to continue the vital conservation work at the Hill House, which has been afflicted with chronic damp since it was completed in 1904. The pioneering chainmail Box, installed in 2019, has successfully allowed the house to dry out slowly. This new funding will enable the Trust to move forward with the full removal of the current render, to find a replacement which will resolve the longstanding damp issue, remove the Box in 2028 and provide updated, permanent visitor facilities, including a café, shop and toilet facilities at the site on Upper Colquhoun Street in Helensburgh.

Two black and white photos side by side: on the left is a woman in a long dress sitting on a chair in front of a fireplace: the photo on the right shows the head and shoulders of a young man with dark hair. He has a distinctive moustache and a cravat.

Margaret Macdonald and Charles Rennie Mackintosh

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“We are enormously grateful to The National Lottery Heritage Fund for this generous grant which will help us do all we can to ensure that Mackintosh and Macdonald get the recognition globally and at home that their brilliant design and creativity merit.”

Philip Long OBE

The National Trust for Scotland’s Chief Executive

Philip Long OBE, the Trust’s Chief Executive, said: ’As the charity privileged to care for some of the finest remaining examples of the couple’s work, we strongly feel their contribution should be better understood and celebrated. With the Hill House and the Mackintosh at the Willow at the centre of all our work, we will engage with more people in person and online to tell the story of their creation and the inspiring people involved in those visionary ventures.

’And as a conservation charity, we will protect both buildings to be enjoyed and experienced long into the future. At the Hill House, this means continuing our work to solve its century-long issue with damp, both preserving this masterpiece and pioneering methods that add to the global conservation sector’s knowledge of how to care for and repair 20th-century buildings, and helping train new craftspeople who can carry out work like this in the future.

’At the Mackintosh at the Willow, that means ensuring that this excellent experience thrives under the Trust’s care and continues to grow and contribute to a much-needed revitalisation of Sauchiehall Street and Glasgow’s heritage as a whole. Just a year ago, the future of the tearoom was in doubt. This new funding means the future looks bright, both for the Mackintosh at the Willow and for the appreciation of Mackintosh and Macdonald and their unique take on, and place in, nature, beauty and heritage.’

Caroline Clark, The National Lottery Heritage Fund Director for Scotland, said: ’Conserving the architectural masterpiece of the Hill House and enabling the National Trust for Scotland to tell the story of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Margaret Macdonald’s creative collaboration is hugely important. Thanks to National Lottery players, the Hill House and the stunning Mackintosh at the Willow on Sauchiehall Street will enable visitors to explore the work of these two artistic virtuosos whose influence stretches around the world.’