Tour a Mackintosh masterpiece

On Thursday John McAslan, in the course of his entertaining talk about Charles Rennie Mackintosh (part of the new C20 lecture series Reputations Reassessed), showed some fabulous before and after images of 78 Derngate, which his practice renovated a few years ago. The building is a typical C19th brick terrace which Mackintosh had reimagined for architect-turned-model-engine-maker W. J. Bassett-Lowke. Mackintosh’s skilful re-working of the internal circulation completely transformed the sense of space in the building.

In 1993 the building was at risk when owners Northampton High School for Girls moved out. After a campaign led by the Charles Rennie Mackintosh society, it has now been renovated and opened to the public, together with the adjacent house which provides access and services. If you can’t make it up to Northampton in person you can get a taste of how it looks with the virtual tour on their website: http://www.78derngate.org.uk/content/virtual-tour.