Charles Rennie Mackintosh
Every week we’ll highlight famous Glaswegians
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Glaswegians are rightly proud of famous son Charles Rennie Mackintosh, whose reputation as a talented designer and architect is now celebrated all over the world. He was born at 70 Parson Street, in Townhead, on June 7, 1868, the fourth of 11 children. He was the second son of William McIntosh, a superintendent and chief clerk of the City of Glasgow Police, and his wife, Margaret Rennie.
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It was at Glasgow School of Art, where he took evening classes in a variety of drawing programmes, that Mackintosh began to excel. He won many student competitions, including the prestigious
Alexander Thomson Travelling Studentship in 1890 that allowed him to undertake an architectural tour of Italy. In Glasgow he was apprenticed firstly to architect John Hutchison, but in 1889 he transferred to the larger, more established city practice of Honeyman and Keppie. He resigned in 1913 to try and set up on his own.
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Famous Glasgow buildings designed by Mackintosh include our original headquarters, the Glasgow Herald Building, in 1894 where he incorporated cutting-edge technology like the hydropneumatic lift and fire-resistant concrete flooring, and the Martyrs’ School, built on the street where he was born. This building features spectacular roof trusses and Japanese design influences.
4Mackintosh’s most famous work in the city is Glasgow School of Art, currently being rebuilt after a devastating fire.
5Two women played an important part in Mackintosh’s life and career – his wife, the artist Margaret Macdonald, and Kate Cranston, who commissioned him to design her famous Glasgow tearooms, including those legendary high-back chairs. Mackintosh died in London in 1928 after treatment for cancer of the tongue.