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Summary

Description

Probably John Baird I, begun 1833; with later block by Andrew Robertson, 1930-2. Three-storey and basement symmetrical terrace block, 24-bays, arranged 3-6-6-6-3; three-bay end blocks and six-bay central section slightly advanced. Polished ashlar, channelled at ground floor; ground floor painted. Segmentally arched windows to ground floor; Greek Ionic columned porches to centre (altered) and ends; remaining doorpieces consoled. Mainly sash and case windows in architraves; corniced at first floor with consoled pediments to centre windows of end blocks. Bow window with Corinthian column mullions added at No 183. No 181 returns with five-bays to Blythswood Street repeating main detailing with central pilastered doorpiece; corniced wallhead chimneystack. Four-storey three-bay ashlar block at 123 Blythswood Street to rear of No 181; further bay to outer left containing stair.

Interior: Glasgow Art Club at No 185 remodelled 1893 by John Honeyman & Keppie; panelled and carved door behind cast iron gate; chimneypieces; some leaded glass. Original Ionic screen in entrance hall and in dining room.

Statement of Special Interest

Formerly Athol place. Listed A for quality of interior of the Glasgow Art Club. 123 Blythswood Street was designed for the West of Scotland Agricultural College.

Built in the 1830s, the neo-classical terraced town houses at 187 and 191 Bath Street were bought by the Glasgow Art Club in 1892. John Keppie, of John Honeyman and Keppie, was the appointed architect for the new Club House and his design connected the two houses internally and added a large top-lit gallery to the rear. The entrance hall, stair and gallery were enriched with woodwork and decorative details in French Renaissance and Aesthetic styles that suggests the scheme was the work of more than one designer. (Mackintosh Architecture)

Charles Rennie Mackintosh, who was an apprentice in the firm in the early 1890s, produced drawings of decorative fittings that were almost all carried out in the final building. The stylistic and documentary evidence indicates that Mackintosh was involved in the design work but of a very specific aspect of it. (Mackintosh Architecture).

Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868-1928) was born in Glasgow and is regarded internationally as one of the leading architects and designers of the 20th century. He became known as a pioneer of Modernism, although his architecture took much inspiration from Scottish Baronial, and Scottish and English vernacular forms and their reinterpretation. The synthesis of modern and traditional forms led to a distinctive form of Scottish arts and crafts design, known as 'The Glasgow Style'. This was developed in collaboration with contemporaries Herbert McNair, and the sisters Francis and Margaret Macdonald (who would become his wife in 1900), who were known as 'The Four'. The Glasgow Style is now synonymous with Mackintosh and the City of Glasgow.

Mackintosh's work is wide-ranging and includes public, educational and religious buildings to private houses, interior decorative schemes and sculptures. He is associated with over 150 design projects, ranging from being the principal designer, to projects he was involved with as part of the firm of John Honeyman & Keppie (Honeyman, Keppie & Mackintosh from 1901). The most important work during this partnership was the Glasgow School of Art (LB33105), which was built in two phases from 1897 and culminated in the outstanding library of 1907.

Other key works include the Willow Tea Rooms (LB33173), the Glasgow Herald Building (now The Lighthouse) (LB33087) and Hill House (LB34761), which display the modern principles of the German concept of 'Gesamtkunstwerk', meaning the 'synthesis of the arts'. This is something that Mackintosh applied completely to all of his work, from the exterior to the internal decorative scheme and the furniture and fittings.

Mackintosh left Glasgow in 1914, setting up practice in London the following year. Later he and Margaret moved to France, where until his death, his artistic output largely turned to textile design and watercolours.

Listed building record revised in 2019.

References

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