miss marie's miscellany: Hill House

Charles Rennie Mackintosh is famous all over the world for his unique architecture and design, nicknamed the Glasgow Style. There are many examples of his work in Glasgow, and to the west in Helensburgh is another of his designs, the beautiful Hill House.

As its name suggests, the Hill House is built high above the town, with great views of the Firth of Clyde, although these were completely obscured when we visited because of rain (I refuse to let the inclement weather keep me inside!) The house is owned by the National Trust and they don't allow any photography inside, so no pics of the lovely interior: the main living room and master bedroom are a mixture of cream and pink with typical Mackintosh rose design and gesso panelling, and most of the rest of the house has dark wood panels with tall thin windows. I found these 2 images just to give you an taste of what it's like.

If you click here you can see a few more detailed interior views.

The house was commissioned by Glasgow publisher Walter Blackie, who also had Mackintosh and his wife Margaret design the interiors and much of the furniture for the house. I like the fact that although the house appears to be built on straight lines, on closer inspection one can see it is anything but symmetrical. Windows are different sizes and shapes, the roof is on several levels with chimney stacks of different heights and there are some turrets and curves too.

I like this curved wall at the back of the house which encloses the main staircase.

This is the view of the back of the house from the orchard

I'm not sure what happened to this tree!

There was a small vegetable garden

and a huge garden, mostly lawned with flower beds nearer the house. My mum told me about a TV programme she saw recently about children from Glasgow who were evacuated to the house (still privately owned) during the war; it must have been wonderful to have the run of a huge garden like this, and to stay in such an original home.

There is a cafe which is in the old kitchen, although it's self-service it's still posh! Proper china cups and plates and the delicious cakes on stands with lids. There's a souvenir shop with much tasteful CRM themed merchandise and a design shop with some gorgeous glassware, pottery and jewellery.

Despite the terrible weather, I still enjoyed visiting this lovely piece of architectural and design history. It is beautifully preserved and restored, hard to believe that the house and many of its contents are over 100 years old.