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M221 Willow Tea Rooms

Address: 217, Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow G2 3EX
Date: 1903; 1906; 1916–17
Client: Henderson's Trustees per Andrew MacKinnon; Miss Cranston
Authorship:

(Mackintosh)

c. 1865: Construction of block between W. Campbell Street and Mains Street (later Blythswood Street) containing 211–217 Sauchiehall Street and known as Kensington Place.

1903: 12 March: Dean of Guild Court approval granted for work at 211–7 Sauchiehall Street. 1
25 March: Work on site under way. 2
28 March: Contractor tenders accepted. 3
20 April: Gallery under construction. 4
3 June: Front windows in progress. 5
By 29 October: Lunch and tea rooms open to customers. 6 .
4 November: Final inspection visit. 7

1906: 29 March: Dean of Guild approval granted for interior alterations to Willow Tea Rooms. 8
22 May: Final payment to contractor for work begun in 1903. 9
11 June: Work for lavatories and W.C.s in progress. 10
6 August: Final inspection visit. 11

1916: 21 December: Dean of Guild approval granted for interior alterations to Willow Tea Rooms in the basement of 219 Sauchiehall Street . 12

1917: 12 February: Building work in progress. 13
8 May: Interior work progressing. 14
5 September: Final inspection visit. 15
22 October: Death of Kate Cranston's husband John Cochrane. 16

1919: Kate Cranston retires. Lunch and Tea Rooms sold to Glasgow restaurateur John Smith who renames the business 'The Kensington'. 17

1927: John Smith sells to Daly & Co. and the premises are incorporated into Daly's department store. Extensive alterations are made to the Sauchiehall Street elevation, and internally. All of the former lunch and tea rooms are used for display and sales. 18

1975–6: The former Ladies' Room, or Room de Luxe, on the first floor operates as a café known as the 'Willow Coffee Room'. Previously it had served Daly's suite of bridal sales and fitting rooms. 19

1978: Daly & Co., now owned by House of Fraser, relocates to the new Sauchiehall Centre slightly further E. on the former site of Pettigrew & Stephen's warehouse. The property is purchased by developer Arrowcroft Ltd. 20

1979–80: Major reconstruction supervised by Geoffrey Wimpenny of Keppie, Henderson & Partners for Arrowcroft Ltd. 21
21 April 1980: official reopening including the recreated tea room interiors. 22

1983: 217 leased to M. M. Henderson Ltd, Jewellers. Alterations carried out. 23 NovemberThe Room de Luxe reopened as a tea room, run by Anne Mulhern.
November: Reopening of the Ladies' Room, or Room de Luxe, as a tea room. 24

1996: 14 February: the Gallery reopens as a tea room. 25

1999: Conservation report drawn up by Piers Kettlewell, furniture-maker and conservator.

2006: Purchase of the block of Sauchiehall Street containing the tea rooms by the Wilson Group. Existing tenants remain. 26

2008: May: Draft conservation plan drawn up by Simpson & Brown, Architects, in connection with a Listed Building Consent application for repairs to the elevations. 27

2013: May: Willow Tea Rooms takes over the lease for the whole building and opens up on the ground floor on 1 June.

Notes:

1: Glasgow City Archives Collection: Dean of Guild Court, Register of Inspections, D-OPW 25/8, p. 128.

2: Glasgow City Archives Collection: Dean of Guild Court, Register of Inspections, D-OPW 25/8, p. 128.

3: The Hunterian, University of Glasgow: Honeyman, Keppie & Mackintosh job book, GLAHA 53062, p. 15.

4: Glasgow City Archives Collection: Dean of Guild Court, Register of Inspections, D-OPW 25/8, p. 128.

5: Glasgow City Archives Collection: Dean of Guild Court, Register of Inspections, D-OPW 25/8, p. 128.

6: 'A Unique Tea-Room Miss Cranston's Sauchiehall Street House', Glasgow Evening News, 29 October 1903.

7: Glasgow City Archives Collection: Dean of Guild Court, Register of Inspections, D-OPW 25/8, p. 128.

8: Glasgow City Archives Collection: Dean of Guild Court, Register of Inspections, D-OPW 25/9, p. 61.

9: The Hunterian, University of Glasgow: Honeyman, Keppie & Mackintosh job book, GLAHA 53062, p. 34.

10: Glasgow City Archives Collection: Dean of Guild Court, Register of Inspections, D-OPW 25/9, p. 61.

11: Glasgow City Archives Collection: Dean of Guild Court, Register of Inspections, D-OPW 25/9, p. 61.

12: Glasgow City Archives Collection: Dean of Guild Court, Register of Inspections, D-OPW 25/10, p. 115.

13: Glasgow City Archives Collection: Dean of Guild Court, Register of Inspections, D-OPW 25/10, p. 115.

14: Glasgow City Archives Collection: Dean of Guild Court, Register of Inspections, D-OPW 25/10, p. 115.

15: Glasgow City Archives Collection: Dean of Guild Court, Register of Inspections, D-OPW 25/10, p. 115.

16: Perilla Kinchin, Miss Cranston: Patron of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Edinburgh: NMS Publishing, 1999, p. 81.

17: Perilla Kinchin, Miss Cranston: Patron of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Edinburgh: NMS Publishing, 1999, p. 83.

18: Glasgow City Archives Collection Dean of Guild Court plans, B412/1927/114; Geoff Wimpenny, 'Reconstructing the Willow',Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society Newsletter, 24, Winter 1979–80, pp. 3–6; Elizabeth Williamson, Anne Riches and Malcolm Higgs, Buildings of Scotland: Glasgow, London: Penguin, 1990, p. 241.

19: Alison Harris, 'A report on the present and future condition of the remaining buildings of Charles Rennie Mackintosh', unpublished Dip.Arch. thesis, Mackintosh School of Architecture, Glasgow, 1976, p. 29f.

20: Piers Kettlewell, Historic Scotland listing report, November 1999, p. 2; Alison Harris, 'A report on the present and future condition of the remaining buildings of Charles Rennie Mackintosh', unpublished Dip.Arch. thesis, Mackintosh School of Architecture, Glasgow, 1976, p. 29f.

21: Geoff Wimpenny, 'Reconstructing the Willow', Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society Newsletter, 24, Winter 1979–80, pp. 3–6; Elizabeth Williamson, Anne Riches and Malcolm Higgs, Buildings of Scotland: Glasgow, London: Penguin, 1990, p. 241.

22: The Hunterian, University of Glasgow: invitation from Arrowcroft Ltd to Pamela Reekie to attend official opening on 21 April 1980.

23: Pamela Reekie, 'The Buildings – A Survey. Part I: Glasgow', Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society Newsletter, 35, Autumn 1983, p. 4.

24: Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society Newsletter, 36, February 1984, p. 3.

25: www.willowtearooms.co.uk/today.htm accessed 28 March 2011.

26: Simpson & Brown, 'The Willow Tea Rooms Building, No. 217 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow: Conservation Plan. Draft', May 2008, p. 4.

27: Simpson & Brown, 'The Willow Tea Rooms Building, No. 217 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow: Conservation Plan. Draft', May 2008, p. 8.

'Mackintosh Architecture' led by The Hunterian, University of Glasgow, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council; with additional support from The Monument Trust, The Pilgrim Trust, and the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art; and collaborative input from Historic Scotland and the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland.