Hill House, Helensburgh: Mackintosh Glass

Entrance front of Hill House in Helensburgh, seen from the garden — Hill House, Helensburgh, photographed in October 2017.

Hill House stands above the Clyde at Helensburgh, about an hour from Glasgow. Mackintosh designed it between 1902 and 1904 for the publisher Walter Blackie, and it is often called his best house. The glass is quiet and precise and used sparingly, in lanterns, panels and narrow windows, to bring a little colour into dark, plain rooms.

A plain house on purpose

From the lawn, Hill House looks plain. It is a grey, roughcast house with a slate roof, steep gables and tall chimneys, and hardly any decoration on the outside. That was what the client asked for. Walter Blackie, of the Glasgow publishers Blackie and Son, wanted something that did not look like the brick and red tile houses around Helensburgh, and he wanted it to gain its effect from the shape of the building and not from ornament.

He bought the plot in 1902 and the publisher’s designer, Talwin Morris, suggested Mackintosh. The house cost about £5,000. The order he worked in is what makes it unusual. He got to know the family, worked out how they lived, planned the rooms from the inside and only then drew the outside, which is why the front looks a little lopsided and why it does not copy any single style, although you can see Scottish castles and farmhouses in it.

The grey roughcast entrance and gable of Hill House seen from the lawn — The entrance and tall gable, seen from the lawn.

The side of Hill House behind a clipped hedge, with tall chimneys — The side of the house behind its hedge.

The back of Hill House across a striped lawn with a small tree — The back of the house, across the lawn.

A model of Hill House and its grounds in a glass case — A model of the house and grounds.

The glass

In the hall the dark panelling and screens have small pieces of coloured glass set into them, and light fittings with glass shades hang or stand around the rooms. Elsewhere the glass is in tall, narrow windows, plain panes in a lead grid with a few coloured shapes along the top, like the row of purple tulip shapes on the staircase. The lanterns carry roses and are built as small leaded boxes in pink, green and clear glass.

The same rose and tulip shapes appear in the stencilled walls and on the furniture, which gives the house its sense of completeness. There is more on the rooms below.

Hanging light with pink and white leaded glass in the hall at Hill House — A hanging light in the hall, with pink and white leaded glass.

Hanging light with rose motifs in pink and clear leaded glass at Hill House — Another hanging light, with rose motifs in the glass.

Wall lantern with pink and green rose motifs in leaded glass at Hill House — A wall lantern with the Mackintosh rose.

Narrow leaded glass panel in pink and blue set into a white wall at Hill House — A narrow panel of pink and blue glass in a white wall.

Wall lantern with rose motifs beside a stencilled rose frieze at Hill House — A wall lantern beside the stencilled rose frieze.

Tall staircase window with purple tulip shapes at the top in a lead grid at Hill House — The staircase window, with purple tulip shapes at the top.

Window with a row of purple glass tulip shapes above a lead grid at Hill House — A second window with the same tulip shapes.

Ceiling light with a rose motif in coloured glass at Hill House — A ceiling light with roses around the band.

Small squares of red and pink glass set into dark panelling at Hill House — Small squares of red and pink glass set into the panelling.

Washstand with a leaded glass panel and oval mirror in a bedroom at Hill House — A leaded panel and mirror above the bedroom washstand.

Inside the house

The entrance leads through a few turns into the hall, which is dark, with timber panelling and screens that have small pieces of coloured glass set in them. Blackie’s library and study are beside the front door, away from the family rooms, so that work and home stayed apart.

The drawing room, by contrast, is white and stencilled with roses, with a bay window, a music alcove and a gesso panel by Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh over the fireplace. The dining room goes the other way again, dark and panelled, with a polished steel fireplace. Upstairs, the children’s rooms were in the east wing, and the main bedroom is white and stencilled, with pink details, a vaulted ceiling over the bed and a tall ladder-back chair that Mackintosh designed for it.

Mackintosh drew the furniture as well, and the house still has some of Margaret’s textiles, originals and copies. Her share in the design of the house is still debated, but the gesso panel and the textiles are certainly hers.

A wall light in a metal frame above a white wall with a stencilled frieze of pink roses — A wall light with the stencilled rose frieze.

A white settle with a patterned back under a wall light and a rose frieze — A settle under the same wall light.

A pendant light with pink and white leaded glass panels above a dining table — A hanging light with pink leaded glass.

A curved niche with pink glass behind a small white shelf unit — A curved niche with pink glass.

A white bed with tall decorated panels either side of the bedhead — The main bedroom, with tall panels beside the bed.

A white wardrobe with a rose shape and long stems on its doors, beside a tall ladder-back chair — A wardrobe with a rose motif, beside a ladder-back chair.

The leaking house and the Box

Water has entered the house since its early years, as it has several of his buildings. In 1953 the owner, Campbell Lawson, asked the architect Margaret Brodie to look at the damp, and she blamed the large chimney stack at the west end. The house was given to the National Trust for Scotland in 1982. Later studies suggested that the Portland cement roughcast, which holds moisture, was a bigger part of the problem than traditional lime would have been, and by 2017 the damp was a risk to the structure itself.

Garden front of Hill House in Helensburgh across the lawn — The garden front of the house, across the lawn.

The Trust’s response, in 2019, was to wrap the whole house in a see-through, chainmail-clad structure called the Box. It keeps the rain off but lets air through, so the walls can dry out slowly while repairs are planned, and it is expected to stay until about 2028. The photographs on this page were taken in October 2017, before the Box went up, so they show the house as you could see it then.

What to look for

Look at how few colours there are. The glass is mostly clear, with pink, purple and green kept for small details, and the lead lines do most of the decorating, with the straight lines of the grid set against a few curved roses and tulips. For anyone choosing a Mackintosh-style window or door, that restraint is the quality to reproduce.

Sources and further reading

More Mackintosh

Read about Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Willow Tea Rooms, House for an Art Lover and 78 Derngate. For the craft behind the glass, see leaded lights.