Willow Tearooms

The Willow Tearooms are tearooms at 217 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, Scotland, designed by internationally renowned architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh, which opened for business in October 1903. They quickly gained enormous popularity, and are the most famous of the many Glasgow tearooms that opened in the late 19th and early 20th century. The building was fully restored, largely to Mackintosh's original designs, between 2014 and 2018. It was re-opened as working tearooms in July 2018 and trades under the name "Mackintosh at The Willow". The name was changed following a 2017 trademark dispute with the former operator of 'The Willow Tearooms'. That name brand is now used at tearoom premises in Buchanan Street, Glasgow and, since 2024 at a venue in Princes St, Edinburgh. The name was additionally used at the Watt Brothers Department Store in Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow between 2016 and its closure in 2019. The Tearooms at 217 Sauchiehall Street first opened in 1903 and are the only surviving tearooms designed by Mackintosh for local entrepreneur and patron Miss Catherine Cranston. Over the years and through various changes of ownership and use, the building had deteriorated until it was purchased in 2014 by The Willow Tea Rooms Trust in order to prevent the forced sale of the building, closure of the Tearooms and loss of its contents to collectors. The Tearooms are now owned by the National Trust for Scotland.