Sunday, June 23, 2013

Scotland Sundays: The Willow Tearoom

I have a very special Scotland Sunday this week!  It's the first feature outside Edinburgh and also represents a celebratory event--David and I celebrated our 10-year anniversary!!  Seeing as tea has played such a notable role in our relationship (our first conversations were over a cuppa tea), we decided to go to one of the famous Willow Tearooms in Glasgow.  


If you have ever visited Glasgow, you will know the name of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, a Scottish designer and artist in the Arts and Crafts movement and also influential in the Art Nouveau movement.  Glasgow has several of his masterpiece buildings (one of which, the Glasgow School of Art, is just down the street from a fabulous fabric store--Mandors!!)

Mackintosh had complete control over every aspect of the design in the Willow tearoom.  The tearoom opened for business in 1903 with a special 'Room de Luxe' with high-backed silver chairs and leaded designed glass with the trademark Mackintosh rose design.  The tearoom gets it's name from Sauchiehall, the street on which it stands.  Sauchiehall means 'alley of the willows' and willows feature throughout the design.  You can still come and enjoy a wonderful cup of tea in the willow tearoom.  We always request a spot in the 'Room de Luxe' and on the day we went, we were the only people there!  So we got it all to ourselves!!

It felt fitting to wear my 1933 Butterick 'Katherine Hepburn' dress and jacket since Mackintosh's designs went onto influence Art Deco in Scotland.


There is also a beautiful mural by Margaret MacDonald, Mackintosh's wife, in the tearoom:


They met at the Glasgow School of Art and I just love her designs.  Here's a bbc piece on Margaret that explores her life and work.

I think it's fantastic that we can still enjoy a cup of tea in the original tearoom!  There's still so many Mackintosh buildings we want to see in Glasgow (for example, we haven't yet been to the House of the Art Lover)!  What a wonderful anniversary!!
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23 comments

  1. Congratulations to the two of you!

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  2. Congratulations you look lovely.

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  3. Happy anniversary! :) What a lovely way to celebrate!

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  4. awww, Happy Anniversary! It sounds and looks like a wonderful outing.

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  5. There is also a really good room full of Macintosh's furniture and leaded windows in Kelvingrove Art Museum in Glasgow. When we were in Glasgow, the Macintosh museum was not open so we had to make do with Kelvingrove.

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    1. I definitely need to visit the Kelvingrove again! Such a beautiful building!!

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  6. Happy Anniversary! You looked beautiful for your special day!

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  7. Congrats you two! We have two years until our tenth, but I think we'll be throwing a shindig since we eloped ;)

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  8. Happy Anniversary Debi! You look darling in your coat!

    I like the idea of Scotland Sundays! Maybe I'll make up a Melbourne Monday in ode to your post!

    xo

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    1. You should DEFINITELY do a Melbourne Monday!! We could try and get people all around the world to do a day in their hometown! Wearing Me-mades of course :-)

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  9. Congratulations to you and David - it's mine and my David's 10th anniversary this year too, how lovely!

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    1. AWWWW!!! That is fantastic! Happy anniversary to you both!!

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  10. Happy anniversary! I love the willow tea rooms and particularly love Margaret McDonald's work. Hunterian art gallery have some wonderful examples of her wall murals, and they have the Mackintosh house too which is well worth a visit if you haven't been. House for an Art Lover is amazing too - if you go on a sunny day you can enjoy the park too.

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    1. I haven't been to the Mackintosh house yet!! I must go!!!

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  11. Congratulations! and what a beautiful way to spend an anniversary - in a special place like that.

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  12. Happy anniversary - and what a lovely way to spend it!

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  13. Happy Anniversary! That jacket is so cool :)

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  14. Yes, Happy Anniversary to you both! A well-deserved treat!
    Such a lovely place to visit - reminded me of a set of note cards, taken from a little book, Taking Tea with Mackintosh: The Story of Miss Cranston's Tea Rooms.
    Lovely outfit, as always!
    D'el

    PD/For Mackintosh lovers, the book is available on amazon/us & both cards & book from publisher pomegranate.com, which I'm not affiliated with in any way, other than to drool over so many of their lovely products!

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  15. Lovely jacket! I've actually been to that tearoom when my mom and I visited Scotland in 2008. I only started drinking tea on the journey and my mom and I had two pots of tea that afternoon. Imagine our surprise to be wide awake at midnight chattering away because we'd forgotten tea has caffeine.

    Happy anniversary!

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  16. I remember years ago going to McDonald's (sorry) in Edinburgh and they had decorated it in Macintosh style. I'd love to know if it's still like that!

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I read each and every comment--thank you so much!

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