Afficiondoes of chairs and their history in this country will know the origin of the ‘inspired’ reproduction furniture that has now taken pride of place at the Ocean View Bakery and Restaurant in Pevensey Bay. In the story of the original chairs is the birth of civic modernism in this country —Bay Life, 4 January 2017
In 1896, Charles Rene Mackintosh, the famous Scottish architect, designer and artist in an early seminal piece of work, was commissioned by Mrs Cranston to design all the chairs and fittings for her new emporiums.
In 1892, Mackintosh met fellow artist Margaret MacDonald at evening classes at the Glasgow School of Art and with fellow students the ‘Glasgow School’ movement, a circle of influential modern artists and designers was born, making novel contributions to the Art Noveau movement at the end of the 19th century.
The Glasgow School of Art (designed 1897-1909), regarded as Mackintosh’s architectural masterpiece, is a free-style building, with a modern-looking exterior and an interior that is spacious and utilitarian. The building is widely regarded as being at the birth of the Modernist movement in civic architecture in Europe, created a full twenty five years before the birth of the Bauhaus Movement and their commitment to ‘form and function’, that became the inspiration for modernism across Europe and the United States.
In Bexhill, the De La Warr Pavilion, widely regarded as the first modernist civic structure in the country, started to take shape in 1933, with more than a nod to Mackintosh and his work in Glasgow a generation before.
Sadly the Glasgow School of Art Library, the jewel in the crown of the architectural canon of Macintosh, was burnt to the ground in May 2014 as the result of a major fire that burnt much also of the Glasgow School of Art.
The library, together with the Glasgow School of Art is now being carefully restored. Work began in the summer of 2016 and is planned to complete in 2018 at the cost of something approaching £35 million.
Willow Tearooms. Designed by Charles Rene Macintosh, opened 1903. The Room de Luxe as it is today after restoration. 119 – 121 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow
The Mackintosh partnership with Mrs Cranston was one that was to last for many years. He worked with her on all her establishments, in Argyle Street, Buchanan Street, Ingram Street and Sauchiehall Street. A generous patron, Mrs Cranston allowed Mackintosh unprecedented artistic freedom with all her commissions, although he had the greatest opportunity to demonstrate his brilliance at Sauchiehall Street.
The establishment is now visited by people from across the world. Faithful reproductions of the chairs, the most iconic piece of furniture in the Macintosh canon, are on show at the establishment in Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow.
The ‘Mackintosh inspired’ chairs in the Ocean View Bakery and Restaurant were ‘kindly donated by a lady with a home at Martello Beach, along with a beautiful table’ according to staff that we talked to today at the cafe (4 January).
Reproductions and ‘inspirations’ of the chairs are now seen across the country in various forms. The particular chairs in the Ocean View Bakery and Restaurant reference the famous Mackintosh chairs significantly.
Kate Bundy, owner of the Ocean View Bakery and Restaurant in Pevensey Bay expressed surprise at the lineage and story behind the chairs. She explained, ‘I just love the chairs’. This is particularly interesting, given the history of the story. Mrs Cranston and her establishments were tea rooms, perhaps amongst the most famous in the world, so the ‘Macintosh inspired chairs’ are in good company here in Pevensey Bay.
A coincidence, perhaps that the ‘Mackintosh inspired’ chairs are now in pride of place at the tea rooms here, but proof positive that Pevensey Bay really has got style. A second concidence says that the chairs are meant to be in the cafe.
The Mrs Cranston commissions are well known in history books about tea rooms. The ‘Mackintosh inspired chairs’ sit well in the Ocean View Bakery and Restaurant, particularly given the fact that with road names such as Rossetti, Leyland and Val Prinseps, we have such well established links with the Pre-Raphaelite and Arts and Crafts movement here.
Are you sitting down? The final quiz night question. What are the Christian names of Mrs Cranston, the woman who commissioned the chairs from Charles Rennie Mackintosh in 1896 and Ms Bundy, the owner of the Ocean View Bakery and Restaurant? You guessed it. Kate. They share the same Christian name.
Something about the coincidental links between Mrs Kate Cranston and the famous Willow Hall Tea Rooms in Glasgow and (to us at least) the famous Ms Kate Bundy at the Ocean View Bakery and Restaurant here in Pevensey Bay, says that those chairs donated from the ‘lovely lady at Martello Beach’ have found a rightful new home.
IMAGE CREDIT: Ocean View Bakery and Restaurant, Pevensey Bay, Mackintosh ‘inspired’ chairs light the way for customers greeted at the door.
