The Willow Tea Rooms

External detail of the signage at the Willow Tea Rooms in Glasgow.

Miss Catherine Cranston, a local Glasgow businesswoman, came up with the idea for a series of 'art tearooms'. She approached Charles Rennie Mackintosh to assist the architect and designer George Walton on her new premises in Buchanan Street. The success of the tearoom forged a relationship between Cranston and Mackintosh, which was to last twenty years. Her constant support allowed him to create some of his most memorable interiors. Between 1897 and 1917 he designed or restyled rooms in all four of her Glasgow tearoom establishments.

The Willow Tea Rooms in Sauchiehall Street, opened to the public in 1903, and today tea and light meals are still served here.