Church of Scotland to sell ‘real gem’ Mackintosh buildings this year

The Church of Scotland is planning to sell church buildings in Glasgow designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh by the end of the year.

The Mackintosh Halls, which include a large meeting area and a janitor’s house, were purpose built for church use in 1899 in the city’s Ruchill area.

The sale comes following the union of the congregations of Ruchill Kelvinside Church of Scotland and Maryhill in 2022, with the Church of Scotland facing financial issues.

Rev Stuart Matthews said he hoped a sale to a buyer “with better resources” would secure the building’s long-term future.

Rev Matthews said: “The Mackintosh Halls are a real gem and we are hoping someone with better resources will recognise the building’s significance and undertake to preserve its future appropriately.

“Whilst we don’t have an exact timetable yet we are expecting that the buildings will go on sale towards the end of the year.”

The site also features a church sanctuary, although this was built at a later date and is not by Mackintosh.

Stuart Robertson, Director of the Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society, said the Halls display Mackintosh’s “trademark style”, with his “art nouveau motifs scattered throughout the building”.

He said the Ruchill buildings were designed “at the start of Mackintosh’s extraordinary creative period” from 1895 to 1906, when he designed the Glasgow School of Art.

The art school was almost completely destroyed by two fires in 2014 and 2018.

Earlier this year a former school designed by Mackintosh was sold by Glasgow City Council to the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland, who intend to turn it into a Scottish Catholic museum.