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Hill House, Helensburgh

Coordinates: 56°01′01.4″N 04°43′41″W / 56.017056°N 4.72806°W / 56.017056; -4.72806
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For the school in Knightsbridge, London, see Hill House School. For the fictional haunted house, see The Haunting of Hill House.

Hill House
Map
Established1902
LocationHelensburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom
ArchitectCharles Rennie Mackintosh, Margaret MacDonald Mackintosh
OwnerWalter Blackie
Websitehttps://www.nts.org.uk/visit/places/the-hill-house

The Hill House is a manor in Helensburgh, Scotland, created by architects and designers Charles and Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh.[1][2] The house was built in the British Modern Style and was designed and built for the publisher Walter Blackie in 1902–1904.[3]

Mackintosh also designed the house interior, including furniture and fittings.[4][5] In 1982, the house was donated to the National Trust for Scotland, which maintains and opens the house to visitors.[6][7]

Construction

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In 1902, Walter Blackie, a publisher from Blackie and Son, commissioned Charles Rennie Mackintosh to design the house. Talwin Morris, art director for Blackie and Son, recommended that Blackie work with Mackintosh.[8][9]

Blackie had specific requirements for the construction, seeking grey rough-cast walls and a slate roof instead of traditional materials like bricks and wood beams with red-tiled roofs commonly used in the west of Scotland. He also emphasised architectural effects through the massing of the parts rather than ornamentation, granting Mackintosh creative freedom in his design ideas.[6][10]

Mackintosh observed the everyday life of the Blackie family before creating any drawings, aiming to tailor the house to the needs of its occupants by addressing functional aspects before developing the design.[11]

There have been reports of the house being haunted by the ghost of Walter Blackie[12]. This includes sightings of a tall, slender figure dressed in black with a long black cape vanishing after entering the bedroom.[13] Witnesses have also reported smelling cigar smoke in the house without any discernible source.[14]

Exterior

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The Hill House was designed and constructed by Mackintosh and his wife, Margaret MacDonald, for a fee of £5,000.[15] Its exterior exhibits an asymmetrical design. Mackintosh was influenced by A. W. N. Pugin’s picturesque utility, where the exterior contour evolves from the interior planning. Echoing Pugin’s theory, Mackintosh minimised exterior decoration to emphasise the interior design. He did this by making the transition from the outside world into a more inviting interior space. Paint analysis of the harling on the exterior shows that it might have initially been left as an unpainted pale grey.[16]

Preservation (2019–2028)

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The porous "box" surrounding the house, June 2019

Mackintosh selected Portland cement harling, then a newly introduced product, for the surface finish. This harling was found to be less durable than traditional lime harling, and by 2017, it was discovered to be in a precarious condition, putting the integrity of the whole building at risk. As a temporary solution, the National Trust enclosed the Hill House in a transparent, porous "box" in 2019, allowing some movement of air so that the structure dries out gradually.[17][18] The steel box is set to remain in place until 2028.[19]

As with several of Mackintosh's buildings, there were problems of water ingress from the outset. In 1953, then-owner Campbell Lawson commissioned Glasgow architect Margaret Brodie to redesign details to resolve this issue.[20]

Interior

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One room of the interior of the house.

The mansion incorporated the Edwardian period’s traditional association of an intimate interior space with "femininity" and exterior public spaces with "masculinity". Mackintosh's design approach involved introducing elements traditionally considered "masculine" into the interior, departing from the ornate conventionally "feminine" interiors typical of the period. This method enabled variations in the atmosphere and experience of different spaces according to their intended functions.[21]

References

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  1. ^ "Rennie Mackintosh's Hill House – when two roofs are better than one". the Guardian. 2 June 2019. Retrieved 24 October 2022.
  2. ^ "Hillhouse by Charles Rennie Mackintosh". victorianweb.org. Retrieved 24 October 2022.
  3. ^ "The Hill House, Helensburgh". www.historicenvironment.scot. Retrieved 24 October 2022.
  4. ^ "The Hill House". National Trust for Scotland. Retrieved 24 October 2022.
  5. ^ "The Hill House, Helensburgh". www.historicenvironment.scot. Retrieved 24 October 2022.
  6. ^ a b Scotland, National Trust for (29 June 2021). "The Hill House". National Trust for Scotland. Retrieved 29 June 2021.
  7. ^ "Hillhouse by Charles Rennie Mackintosh". victorianweb.org. Retrieved 24 October 2022.
  8. ^ "The Hill House, Helensburgh". www.historicenvironment.scot. Retrieved 17 April 2025.
  9. ^ "Mackintosh Architecture: People". www.mackintosh-architecture.gla.ac.uk. Retrieved 17 April 2025.
  10. ^ NTS Places to visit - The Hill House Archived 2012-04-02 at the Wayback Machine
  11. ^ Collection, Tea (23 October 2017). "Living in a Work of Art: Mackintosh's Hill House". Tea Collection Blog. Retrieved 17 April 2025.
  12. ^ "BBC Scotland - BBC Scotland - There's an actual Hill House in the UK — and yes, it's haunted". BBC. Retrieved 24 January 2023.
  13. ^ "National Trust for Scotland - Autumn". Archived from the original on 2 April 2012. Retrieved 4 October 2011.
  14. ^ "BBC Scotland - BBC Scotland - There's an actual Hill House in the UK — and yes, it's haunted". BBC. Retrieved 12 April 2023.
  15. ^ The Newsroom (22 November 2018). "Charles Rennie Mackintosh's Hill House gets giant chainmail '˜box'". www.scotsman.com. Retrieved 24 January 2023. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  16. ^ Patrick Baty. The Hill House. A report following an examination of a number of external surfaces.11 May 2005.
  17. ^ "How We'll Save Hill House". The National Trust for Scotland. 30 November 2017. Retrieved 2 February 2018.
  18. ^ Slessor, Catherine (2 June 2019). "Rennie Mackintosh's Hill House – when two roofs are better than one". The Observer. Retrieved 2 June 2019.
  19. ^ "Protective box around Rennie Mackintosh house to remain in place until 2028". The Independent. 19 December 2024. Retrieved 20 December 2024.
  20. ^ https://www.nts.org.uk/visit/places/the-hill-house/women-of-the-hill-house
  21. ^ "Charles Rennie Mackintosh's Hill House was designed from the inside out". Dezeen. 4 June 2018. Retrieved 17 April 2025.
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See also

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56°01′01.4″N 04°43′41″W / 56.017056°N 4.72806°W / 56.017056; -4.72806

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