How Charles Rennie Mackintosh's famous Oak Room was brought back to life!
Charles Rennie Mackintosh was a Scottish architect, designer and artist who became famous worldwide. His stunning architecture can be seen around Glasgow particularly at the Scotland Street School and the Glasgow School of Art.
Catherine Cranston or Kate as she was commonly known contracted Mackintosh to design her tea rooms in Glasgow. These tea rooms were very popular in the early 1900s and loved by the people of Glasgow.
The Oak Room was originally designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh in 1907 for her Ingram Street tearooms in Glasgow.
In 1971 Glasgow Museums salvaged and stored the Oak Room.
And now thankfully we can view Charles Rennie Mackintosh's stunning design as the Oak Room has been conserved and rebuilt in the V&A Museum of Design in Dundee.
At STROMA Films, we were delighted to be given the opportunity by the V&A Dundee to document the process of restoring the Oak Room from very early on when the 600 pieces were being assembled during a trial hang in a converted church on the outskirts of Edinburgh. We followed the project for 2 years to help reveal how a major lost work by Scotland’s most famous designer was brought back to life more than 100 years later.
If you get the opportunity to visit the V&A Dundee, we hope our video will help you appreciate and love the Oak Room even more. If you are unable to visit Dundee, we hope our film will help you appreciate and understand how great a designer and architect Mackintosh was and why the people of Scotland love his work so much.
