The Hill House

On the coldest day yet, Bruce and I started out from the Dalmarnock flat for The Hill House, a property owned and managed by the National Trust for Scotland. It was designed - inside and out - by Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his wife Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh. It was a journey of around an hour and even in the train it was cold. We alighted from the train at the Helensbugh Upper station which has one track that serves both directions. (One assumes that whiskey drinking is forbidden while on duty.)

The walk to the property takes about 10 minutes and is, of course, uphill. It's fairly unprepossessing from the outside and one might not notice it were it not for the steel cage that surrounds it. More about that in a second. The house was commissioned by the Glasgow publisher, Walter Blackie; it remains a remarkably complete example of Charles Rennie Mackintosh's unique vision and is widely acclaimed as a work of art and design, associated with the Art Nouveau movement at the turn of the 20th century.

Now, about the cage. When The Hill House was built in 1903, cement was a brand new building material. Mackintosh chose to cover the sandstone building in roughcast cement in order to achieve a simple, austere look. He achieved the look but the roughcast cracked over time, allowing water to seep inside and erode the underlying structure. In the 1950s, architect Margaret Brodie made some big changes to the building in an attempt to stop water from getting in. She changed the appearance of the roof, removed the main chimney and added weathering features to combat the harsh west coast weather. In the 1970s the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland brought in Gillespie Kidd & Coia who reversed the changes made by Brodie. By the 1980s, the National Trust for Scotland had taken over the care for the Hill House and another architectural firm, Boys Jarvis, came in to do more repairs. More recently, an infra-red thermographic and micro-wave moisture survey, mapped onto a digital model, created a detailed 3D picture of the Hill House. Decades of rain had soaked the building and caused damage to the bones of the house. A bold strategy was decided – the Trust would place the Hill House within a chainmail box to protect it from the elements.

The bad thing about that is the fact that the house is rather obscured. The cool thing about it is that once inside, you can walk around along a series of walkways and peer down at the house from above.

The structure now in place allows the wind to blow across the surface, drying out the cement. The roof keeps rain from doing further damage. There was ongoing debate on how to deal with the building going forward. Should the roughcast be removed completely and a new outside skin be put on? How would that change the look? Well, the Concrete Technology Unit of the University of Dundee (who knew there was such a thing?) worked with the Trust to find a solution. Ultimately they developed a material that looks very much like the roughcast cement, but which is impermeable and will protect the house from further damage. All good, right? Well, apparently there's a new debate about whether to keep the cage in place. It wasn't something envisioned by Mackintosh so it should go. Well, yes, but it gives visitors a unique perspective from which to appreciate the construction so it should stay. The debate rages on. Time will tell what decision is made.

One approaches the house from the welcome center/gift shop where the staff is indeed very welcoming. You leave the little building and approach the front door as a visitor might have done. There is a small foyer and just off it on the right is Walter Blackie's study and library.

It utilizes the dark wood of a traditional Scottish library, but you notice that the dark wood only extends partway up the wall. The top of the walls and the ceiling are white, which helps to lift the feeling of the room. Mackintosh's design is established in the cupboards with their stained glass panels and the gently curving wooden accents.

These stained glass squares extend all around the room at the top of the shelves and in the panels over and beside the fireplace. (Reproductions of the renderings of plans for the house are framed over the fireplace.)

The library holds a copy of all the books published by Blackie & Son. Some of the jackets were designed by Mackintosh late in his career. From the foyer, you climb three or four stairs into the entry hall which was designed to represent a forest, its tall thin timbers representing trees and the stained glass pendant lights representing the honesty plant.

Squares and rectangles are everywhere, as are more stained glass panels. These are done in purples and pinks, which were the signature colors of the house.

Off the entry hall is the drawing room, which is a symphony of lightness and brightness. The guide book describes it thus: "Moving from the dappled shade of the hallway, we enter the light and elegant rose garden that is the drawing room."

Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh's gesso panel over the fireplace depicts a sleeping princess in her protective bower of roses.

In the corner, recessed shelves resemble branches of a tree topped by pale purple and silver glass leaves.

Roses stenciled on the ivory walls are separated by silver foil "trunks". These are echoed in the stained glass lamps and the lampshade on the floor lamp.

As pretty as these photographs may be, they don't adequately represent the magnificence of this room. Every little detail was part of the overall design. Even the antimacassars were designed and made by Margaret to protect the chairs from the men's hair oils.

The dining room was designed in keeping with traditional Scottish dining rooms, of dark woods. Because the Blackies had just purchased dining room furniture for their old house, Mackintosh designed no furniture for the dining room, just the stained glass lighting fixture that hangs above the table.

Mackintosh wanted the house to have one overarching feel, so he designed the kitchen and pantries which would only have been seen by the servants.

The tea towel hanging from the shelf says,

"One cook who came to Hill House for six months stayed for three years because she found the house so comfortable. The kitchen was within easy reach of the dining room, and the pantries were fitted out with all the necessary counters and cupboards, without any loss of style. Coming from a large middle class family, Mackintosh would have understood the Blackies' needs very well."

The staircase is in a circular design which looks like a castle's turret from outside.

There was even a very stylish 1903 shower.

At the top of the stairs is Walter Blackie's dressing room.

Off of Mr. Blackie's dressing room you come to the main Bedroom. It is elegant and light and echoes the design features of the drawing room.

The little cubby holes on either side of the bed are lined with pink tiles.

Per the cloth hanging in the wardrobe, "The rose and trellis decoration has become synonymous with Mackintosh but it wasn't just a stock in trade motif. Anna Blackie loved flowers, so in her room she has roses."

The bedroom fireplace. Note the pale roses stenciled on the wall.

The wash stand and its stained glass detail:

It's all just so perfect together. By all accounts, the Blackies were not at all daunted by the fact that they were living in such surroundings. This was a home for them. To quote the souvenir booklet I bought,

"...daily life, as remembered by family members, seemed to have found a stable balance between the artistic and the practical. The children recalled a happy and carefree childhood and a distinct non-fussiness towards the interiors. They remembered that they were never told not to touch anything and that life in the house was quite normal. 'We never thought of it as something special. It was just our home,' recalled Ruth Hedderwich and her sister Agnes Blackie in 1989."

One of the children's bedrooms:

The upstairs hallway

and built-in play nook:

On the second floor there was a room in which a short film about Hill House, Mackintosh, and Macdonald played. I captured my favorite frame which is often quoted.

("Oh, I had the talent but she had the genius. We made a pair." "Margaret Macdonald is my spirit key. My other half.")

Though he had early recognition, Mackintosh never had the career he should have. In fact, his acknowledgement as a genius of Art Nouveau and Arts and Crafts architecture and decoration didn't come during his lifetime. His later life was devoted to watercolor, his having become disillusioned with architecture. He died in 1928; it wasn't until the mid-1930s that he started to be recognized and acknowledged. It strikes me as particularly sad that Margaret Macdonald seems to be considered a lesser partner. Her influence was clear, and as they matured, their styles seemed to become one. Given the era and the rampant sexism and misogyny of the time it's not surprising, though.

I haven't half done justice to the building or the artists. I would encourage you to check them out and revel in their genius.