Stuart Cranston was a very successful tea importer, based in Glasgow. In 1871 he decided to put some tables and chairs in his shop inviting people in to taste his wares at 2d per cup, with extra charged for bread and cakes - and so the Tea Room was born.
His sister Kate, seeing that there was an opportunity to provide a venue for ladies to mix socially without chaparones - this was Victorian Scotland after all - took the idea further, eventually opening four tea rooms in the city. She became a very successful businesswoman worth millions of pounds in today's money as a result. One of her tea rooms was in Sauchiehall Street (which apparently in gaelic means Alley of the Willows) and was called the Willow Tea Rooms, today the building has been restored to its original splendour and is open for both guided tours and for you to take tea or have lunch.
Why is this all so special? Well Kate Cranston was a great admirer of one Charles Rennie Mackintosh and he was commissioned to design the Willow from scratch. Some of the original features remain in the building but where they are missing everything has been painstaking recreated from drawings, photos, known artifacts and newspaper cuttings. The result is stunning.
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| Detail from the wall on the ground floor |
Now before we go any further I should point out that the high backed chairs in the photo above are available to buy in the gift shop at a cost of £3995 each. If anyone wins the lottery I would like 6 for my dining room!
I went to Mackintosh at the Willow as its now called at 11am today for a one hour guided tour of the building and then afterwards went in for a two course lunch. The tour was good, the food good and the surroundings outstanding so I would recommend it if you ever go to Glasgow.
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