Glasgow School of Art

167 Renfrew Street, Glasgow, G3 6RQ.
Tel: 0141 353 4500

Home Page | Glasgow | Art Galleries | Glasgow School of Art


Founded in 1845 as Glasgow Government School of Design, this world-renowned art school changed its name to Glasgow School of Art in 1853 and was originally sited in Ingram Street near Glasgow’s Merchant City. One of Glasgow’s famous sons and alumni of the School of Art, Charles Rennie Mackintosh won the bid to redesign the new Art School, which was relocated to Renfrew Street. The Glasgow School of Art was completed in two phases, the first in 1899 and the second in 1909.

Sited at the edge of at the steep gradient in Renfrew Street, Glasgow School of Art is an imposing and remarkable structure, stretching along an entire block. The building is a prime example of Mackintosh’s eclectic architectural style, having influences from Scottish baronial architecture that incorporates heavy masonry, and the exquisitely designed art nouveau emblems featuring floral and geometric motifs in iron work, interior tiles and fittings. Visitors to one of the world’s finest art school will notice that Rennie Mackintosh selected contemporary materials and techniques in the design of his former place of study, particularly the large and industrial braced windows.

The building plan is an elongated ‘E’ shape featuring corridors along the spine of the Art School. This links the large studios on the street –side to offices and ancillary rooms situated at the rear. The two largest rooms are located at both the east and west side, most significantly the two-story library on the west. The main entrance is located slightly off centre and visitors will notice the striking art nouveau arch before the entrance steps at the street leading to a top lit museum at the rear of the entrance. The interiors are designed with equal ingenuity in collaboration with Mackintosh’s wife, Margaret Macdonald. Art nouveau floral and geometric emblems add scale and colour to the rooms and studios in details of mantlepieces, lighting fixtures, carpets, furniture, and crockery.

The Glasgow School of Art invites visitors to marvel at the building’s extraordinary architectural features and interiors. The Mackintosh Building can be visited by guided tours only which encompasses the corridors, the Gallery, the Mackintosh Room and finishes in one of Mackintosh’s showpiece interiors, the Library. Guides provide an informative tour where visitors can learn about the life and works of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and the history of Glasgow School of Art. At the end of the tour at Mackintosh’s most celebrated buildings in Glasgow, The Mackintosh Shop is an optional choice where you can browse through a unique range of gifts, prints, postcards and books dedicated to Mackintosh.

Over a century on, Mackintosh's Glasgow School of Art continues to function as one of the world's leading art schools, a purpose which he intended. The Mackintosh Building, which serves as the main campus to the art school is indeed one of Glasgow's finest architectural monuments per se, having been granted listed building status protected by statute. Over the years, Glasgow School of Art has become one of the most favoured tourist attractions in Glasgow, drawing in over 20,000 visitors annually.

The Glasgow School of Art balances its duties as a functioning art school, a heritage building and visitor attraction all under one roof and is fully committed to the preservation of the original building and interior through collaboration with Historic Scotland. The Art School is also focussed in its prerequisite role in the cultural-tourism sector. Primarily, the Mackintosh Building’s main purpose is to service the needs of students and as it enters the 21st Century, Glasgow School of Art is something that Mackintosh would have been proud of indeed.