Mackintosh’s ease in moving between the domestic and the public
spheres was manifested most clearly in his designs for Miss Catherine
Cranston, who opened a chain of tea rooms in Glasgow at the turn of
the century. Influenced by the temperance movement, the sophisticated,
artistic spaces they created together rapidly became fashionable places
where middle-class women could take tea in the afternoons during their
shopping trips. The rooms also provided lunches for office workers of
both sexes. Mackintosh began working with Miss Cranston in 1896 on the
Buchanan Street rooms, where he created a number of stencilled murals.
Next, at Argyle Street, he created the furniture. Between 1900 and 1911 he
worked with his wife on the Ingram Street rooms, where they created
a number of striking interiors combining his talent for rectilinear form
and Margaret Macdonald’s for floral, symbolist-inspired, decorative
work. The level of his attention to detail was manifested in his design for
a coat rack and umbrella stand, created for the ‘White Room’ in Ingram46 Street. Its rectilinear form mirrored the aesthetic used throughout the
An umbrella- and coat-stand in the Ingram Street Tea Rooms, Glasgow, designed by
Charles Rennie Mackintosh, c. 1900 , illustrated in The Studio, 1903.