Hill House

The finest of Charles Rennie Mackintosh's domestic creations, The Hill House sits high above the Clyde commanding fine views over the river estuary. Walter Blackie, director of the well-known Glasgow publishers, commissioned not only the house and garden but much of the furniture and all the interior fittings and decorative schemes. Mackintosh's wife, Margaret MacDonald, contributed fabric designs and a unique gesso overmantel. The overall effect is daring, but restrained in its elegance: the result, timeless rooms, as modern today as they must have been in 1904 when the Blackie family moved in.

An information room interprets the special relationship between architect and patron. It provides a historical context for the Glasgow Style, the background against which Mackintosh's dazzling architectural effects have most meaning. An exhibition in the upper east wing presents the work of new designers; a stereoscopic view of the main axes of the building; a demonstration of the effects of the wonderful stained glass; a selection of the original fabrics; examples of the effects of patronage; and an examination of the relationship between Mackintosh's work and a designed item which has become a 20th-century icon.

The gardens have been restored to their former glory, and reflect features common to Mackintosh's architectural designs. They also contain a kinetic sculpture given to the by the artist George Rickey.

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