Thursday’s Special : The Lighthouse

Did you guess where I was, among the rooftops?

Did you guess where I was, up among the rooftops in Glasgow?

Looking down

Looking down

This might be the clue you need

Maybe this is the clue you need?

The Glasgow Herald Building is known as ‘The Lighthouse’ and was designed by Glasgow-born architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh.  Now Scotland’s Centre of Architecture, Design and the City, it has one floor dedicated to the work of its designer. When I read that I could ascend the tower for views over Glasgow’s rooftops there was never any doubt that I would seek out the building.

The building was Rennie Mackintosh’s first public commission and was built between 1893-1895.  A former warehouse, its most prominent feature is the tower, which was designed to contain an 8.000 gallon water tank, to protect the building from fire hazard. When the Herald moved to new premises in the early eighties, it stood unoccupied for 15 years. Thankfully today’s model is as cutting edge as Rennie Mackintosh was in his time.

I entered it in pure excitement.  Ascending the escalator to the third floor I marvelled at what I found there.  Tiny models of designs of his that were never even completed sat alongside others of his landmark Glasgow buildings.  I found myself longing to visit them all.

How sad that this was never built

How sad that this was never built

But this one was

But this one was- the Glasgow School of Art

There are drawings to examine

There are drawings to examine

Like House for an Art Lover, completed after his death

Like the plans for ‘House for an Art Lover’, completed after his death

There’s a history of this building
In pictorial form
With all it’s drama
And numerous design details

And numerous design details

Rennie Mackintosh admired simple forms and natural materials.  In his design he used texture and the contrast of light and shadow. He admired Japanese design but developed his own style, with strong right angles and the decorative floral motifs, with subtle curves, for which he is known. This building and its use of industrial space is a fitting tribute to him.

Impossible not to love!

For me it’s a love affair

IMG_5193

Visit The Lighthouse website for a better look at his work.  As it says in the video, “each of the properties will tell you a different piece of the story”.  Sadly I never did get to climb that tower.  It was closed for repairs!  But I took the lift to the sixth floor for the rooftop view anyway.  You can take a virtual tour of the Mackintosh Centre and the viewing platform on the website (on a much sunnier day than I managed).

I am dedicating this post to Paula.  She is not able to delight us with her usual Thursday’s Special this week due to pressure of work and being ill.  Get well soon Paula.  We miss you!

 

76 comments

  1. I love older architecture. Where I live, the oldest building is, maybe, from the 1950’s. And all our homes look alike. I actually turned into the wrong driveway one night and I hadn’t even been drinking!

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  3. You’ve done a fabulous post Jo . He’s one man whose popularity has never waned as far as I can tell. Imagine those other unbuilt Mackintosh places .. built 🙂 wow .

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    1. I was about to burst into ‘chim chimney, chim chimney, chim chim, cheroo’, AG 🙂 If you saw the 6WS post that preceded this, the chimney pots were just exactly right for Poppins!

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  6. Pingback: Thursday’s Special: A Thing of Beauty | Lost in Translation

  7. I am grateful Jo. I will miss (and have missed) seeing your posts. I will be back soon. Have a happy Easter and great time with your family in Poland. Hugs, P.

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    1. I did the visual tour afterwards, Sue, and don’t think I missed much. The rooftop views were from the same viewing platform as my 6WS post, and with very dreary grey skies. 🙂

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      1. Those dreary grey skies. Any sunshine for you today Jo? Still snow here and grey skies however the weatherman is predicting spring beginning tomorrow. Can you hear me squealing with delight?

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    1. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, Jill. Things always look a little different than you envisage from a website, don’t they? But I enjoyed it 🙂 Hope you have a nice Easter planned.

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  13. Great post Jo. I love the Lighthouse. It has been a few years since I was last in there. Shame the tower was closed. You will need to visit House for an Art Lover and Hill House in Helensburgh. Both are Mackintosh designed houses and worth seeing.

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    1. I’m desperate to visit House for an Art Lover, Colin, and that steamer, the Waverley, has my name all over it for the trip to Helensburgh 🙂 I loved your home town!

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  18. I’ve been on a tour of the Glasgow Herald building before, but when it was the place that produced the newspaper rather than it its new guise! Your posts about Glasgow have inspired me to visit so many places when I next go there – and the Lighthouse is definitely one of them, so that I can admire all the drawings and models.

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      1. I went on a tour of it when I was in the Girl Guides, and we also saw the newspaper printing process and how they used to set up the words using steel letters, in mirror image. We each got our names made using the letters, which I kept for years and years, but then of course threw away in the end. How annoying, as it would be quite an interesting item now that everything is digital.

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