Wednesday 16 March 2016

Encounter with Charles Rennie Mackintosh in Walberswick

We are holidaying in Southwold. We went to Walberswick, across the river and discovered a plaque from the Charles Rennie Mackintosh society, at the Bell Pub.

He and his wife, Margaret Macdonald, spent a year living in Walberswick from 1914-15.  I think by this time his productive career as an architect was over, and he was in ill health, so he migrated from Scotland to Walberswick for the milder climate.  He planned to publish a book of flower illustrations, as he was still fit enough to do watercolours.  Apparently he was in negotiations with a German company to publish it.  This led to him being viewed with suspicion by the locals, as he had a lot of post from Germany, had a strange guttural accent (Glaswegian!), and kept himself very much to himself, apart from frequenting the local pub.  The information board in the pub said displeasure from the local residents led to CRM spending a night in the cells!.

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