Hill House Helensburgh

I went to the Hill House in Helensburgh yesterday, it's only taken me 20 odd years to get round to it, I have to confess I'm not a huge fan of Mackintosh but I can refine that now, I'm not a huge fan of his stylised roses and that's what puts me off. There's a lot of them at Hill House especially in the music room but the architecture in particular the woodwork is sublime, and I loved the lights he'd designed. There was one room we voted as our favourite, which was built into the curve of the building, it's a child's room and it overlooks the garden to the side with almost floor to ceiling windows, the light was flooding in and it just looked perfect.

In many of the rooms the wall decoration has been recreated because the original scheme has been found beneath a layer of paint, sections of the original have been left exposed and then recreated over the rest of the room, fascinating.

You aren't allowed to take photo's inside so I can't show this.

The house was built for Blackie the book publisher and a friend of mine used to own Blackie's previous house in Cove, which was as different from Hill House as it's possible to get, it's typically victorian, quite dark but majestic, not as large as Hill House but size able still the same, I often wondered if Mackintosh had perhaps popped round with plans, it makes you think.

The weather was gorgeous, it was about 19C which saying that we are a week away from October is miraculous. 

The photo's of the exterior are mine and I've borrowed a couple from the internet to show the inside, apologies to the image owners.