George Walton & Co: Work for Commercial Organisations. The Rowntree Firms

The Decorative Arts Society 1850 to the Present

George Walton &Co: Work for Commercial Organisations. The Rowntree FirmsAuthor(s): Karen MoonSource: The Journal of the Decorative Arts Society 1890-1940, No. 5 (1981), pp. 12-22Published by: The Decorative Arts Society 1850 to the PresentStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41804182 .

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George Walton 8c Co: Work for Commercial

Organisations. The Rowntree Firms

by Karen Moon

The business run by George Walton was concerned mainly, in the early years, with the design and execution of exclusive interior decorations and stained glass for the private houses of wealthy Glasgow artists and industrialists. At the same time, however, it had no hesitation in involving itself in various types of commercial work. The decoration and furnishing of a Tea Room for Miss Cranston at Argyle Street is reputedly his first job, for which Walton left his position as a bank clerk to set up as 'George Walton & Co., ecclesiastical and house decorators' in 1888. He must have been well aware that the decoration of public refreshment rooms was a particularly good way of getting his work known, as such tea rooms were a meeting point of the City's fashionable society. Whether by accident or intent, the start of Walton's practice in Yorkshire followed similar lines. His first known commission in this area, the decoration of a Café for John Rowntree & Sons of Scarborough in 1896, was evidently enough to produce a flow of jobs - sufficient to require the opening of a new office in York by 1898-9.

To the question 'Why Walton?', one of the last directors of John Rowntree & Sons, Mr Richard Taylor, comments 'I always understood that George Walton was the expert in café design . . . and therefore the Rowntree uncles would naturally ask their architect cousin to engage George Walton'.1 While it is possible that Walton's successes in Glasgow were already known in Scarborough by 1896, it seems more probable that the 'architect cousin' in question, Fred Rowntree, introduced Walton to the Rowntree family himself. After training under Edward Burgess (who in fact had been the designer of the new department store building at Scarborough for William Rowntree's firm in 1881-2), Fred Rowntree had moved to Glasgow in 1890 to form a partnership with Malcolm Stark, and had already collaborated with Walton in Glasgow before this commission from his cousin's firm of 1896.

The Scarborough of 1896 was a busy and fashionable 'watering-place' and seaside resort. The Spa, with its mineral springs of 'aperient' and 'tonic' properties, was the main attraction to Victorian holidaymakers, drawing them in large numbers from as far afield as London. The enormous Grand Hotel by Cuthbert Broderick had been erected in the 1890s to cater for the influx of visitors; while, by 1907, £120,000 had been spent by the town on a new 'marine Drive'.2 A feeling for the atmosphere of the town can be gained from descriptions in a contemporary 'Souvenir' of Scarborough:

'The Esplanade ... is the scene during the season of that great feature of Scarborough life known as "the Church Parade". Here at noon, after Divine Service, on Sundays it is the established custom of the beauty and fashion of the town to resort. Here we mark the fashions of the day . . . every lady does her best to add to the brilliance of this brilliant scene, which is certainly unsurpassed by any other wateringplace in the

kingdom.'3 As Scarborough's popularity increased, local businesses thrived, particularly if they catered to the fashionable tastes of their wealthy patrons. Such was the demand for the latest fashionable goods, that Marshall & Snelgrove opened its first branch outside London in Scarborough. William Rowntree's firm, which began as a draper's in the 1820s, had by the 1880s become a large and progressive department store, filling a central site on the main street. Special shows of goods in the 'Aesthetic' taste were a feature of the store in the 1880s. Advertisements for these shows were decorated with peacock feathers, chínese vases, sunflowers and potted ferms. There were shows of 'Oriental Decorative Art and Antique Furniture'. A 'Special Show of Christmas Presents' included 'Japanese and Dresden China - the first extensive show of this kind'. (Customers were advised for their comfort that 'the premises are lighted by electricity and warmed throughout with hot water'.) Amongst the promotional leaflets that have survived in the archives of the firm,4 is the following proud announcement: 'William Rowntree & Sons have been appointed sole agents in Scarborough and District for "Liberty" art fabrics.'

It is no surprise in this context that the Rowntree firms should be willing to invite a fashionable young designer like George Walton to create appropriate interiors for their public refreshment

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rooms. The business started by the Scarborough branch of the Rowntree family had divided into two in the 1820s when William Rowntree set up his draper's shop. The parent firm was a grocer -John Rowntree & Sons - established in 1778. By the 1890s, John Rowntree's had developed an important branch of its trade in tea and coffee importing. Coffee roasting became one of the firm's specialities and a number of new branches were opened. Both firms were progressive not only in their awareness of good taste and fashion, but also in the practical details of trading. John Rowntree's was the first shop in Scarborough to be lit by gas, and again the first to be lit by electricity. By 1881, the firm had installed telephones in its various branches.5 In 1896 plans were made for a café on the site of an ironmonger's shop at No. 1 1 Westborough. Cafés were apparently quite a novelty in Scarborough at this time. Walton was asked to design the interiors and to supply the furniture in consultation with the director John Rowntree. He was also responsible for the choice or design of a number of other items - notably china and vases for the decoration of the Café - but also some of the firm's publicity material.6

While Walton was employed as 'Designer' of the Café, Fred Rowntree was engaged as 'Architect'. Unfortunately the exact division of the work is unclear. According to C.J. Taylor,7 'practically all the woodwork and metalwork was by George Walton', but whether this was true of the exterior as well as the interior is not known. Their titles would seem to imply that Fred Rowntree was responsible for the structural alterations, and quite possibly the design of the shop front. (Plate 1). The front is in keeping with Rowntree's work of this date, especially the arched shaping of the window transoms, which appears again in his extension to the department store.8 It may be, however, that Walton had a hand in the design of the shop front too. He had already been involved in shop front design in Glasgow - for the first Cranston Tea Room at 1 14 Argyle Street9 and c. 1891 for the Glasgow silk mercers Neilson, Shaw and MacGregor, and no doubt

Plate 1 John Rowntree & Sons' Café with Coronation decorations, 1902

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for his own showrooms too. Later, of course, Walton did much more of this sort of work for the photographic firms of Kodak and Wellington & Ward. Whether or not Walton was involved in the shop front design at the Rowntree Café, it was definitely his firm that was responsible for the 'making, designing and supplying' of a brass repoussé panel at the cost of £9 10s, as an entry for the work appears on Walton's bill.10 Two such panels appeared at the front, one, with the words 'Rowntree's Café', fitted on the main, wooden door (exactly paralleling Walton's treatment of the entrance at 1 14 Argyle Street); a second, similar but much larger and very decorative panel on the side pier displayed the firm's name in raised lettering and had incorporated in the design a large sailing ship - a symbol used by the firm.

The lower part of the shop front had a quaint, old-world atmosphere about it. Below a large arch on the first floor which framed a recessed window and open balcony, the ground floor windows were leaded and small-paned. Whilst most shop windows at this time were moving to larger and larger areas of the newly available plate glass in order to display their goods to the best advan- tage, the Café went to the opposite extreme, and could do so successfully because of its different function. The seclusion and domesticity of these windows would encourage people off the busy shopping street. A recessed doorway provided sheltered entrance to customers in bad weather. Inside, the floor was parquet wood tiles, the walls panelled with oak throughout. To the side of the main space was an inglenook fireplace, (Plate 2) squarely in the tradition of the Arts and Crafts movement, with fitted bench seats and half-timbering above. A few months before work started at the Café, Baillie Scott had written an article on 'The Fireplace of the Suburban House' in the Studio (of which Walton was a subscriber).11 Baillie Scott stressed the importance of the fireplace:

'So much of the comfort as well as the beauty of a room depends on a well-arranged fireside that few will underrate its importance. It is at the fireside that the interest of the room is focussed.'

Plate 2 John Rowntree & Sons' Café: Inglenook on the ground floor

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He suggests as a starting-point for 'a simple homely dignity of style', 'the cottage inglenook with its broad brick hearth, its wide settee and roughly hewn oak beam'. Although Walton does not follow his suggestions as to the placing of the ingle (partly one would think because of the larger size of the room than in a domestic interior), Baillie Scott's suggested starting-point is quite adequate as a description of Walton's design. Illustrations by Baillie Scott for the article confirm the impression that Walton closely followed Scott's way of thinking: half- timbering with ogee braces above, the use of brick on the surround as well as on the hearth, and large, ornamented, wrought-iron fire-dogs ('dumbly expressing the love of the workman for his work'12). Walton sets coloured glass into the hand-beaten copper finials of his fire-dogs and places a mottoed plaque over the mantle.13 Of course the revival of the inglenook dated from well before Baillie Scott's article (Shaw's first ingle was c. 1864-5), but it is significant that Walton should use as a focal point a feature seen by his contemporaries as the hub of domestic life, while the details of Scott's designs may be seen as a possible influence.

A Delft rack extended right round the ground floor room. Richard Taylor commented14: 'I was always told by my father that George Walton advised on china for the Café'; and that the Delft rack had 'some 20 items of chínese type vases'. In surviving photographs of the Café (Plate 3), they appear side by side with some of Walton's 'Clutha' glass made by James Powell & Sons. The room was furnished with sturdy wooden tables and chairs, with turned front legs and up- rights and floor-level stretchers. Some of the chairs had rush seats and backs, and others were upholstered in leather, while the armed version had sinuously curving wooden arms.

A central staircase led up to the first floor rooms, passing on the half-landing a coffee room for gentlemen only. Over the well of the staircase was an aviary, and by it a stained glass window about 5 ft 9 in X 9 ft, one panel of which apparently survived in the Victoria and Albert Museum.15 The gentlemen's coffee room was furnished with Walton's (now well-known) oak armchair with broad, flat arms, rush seat and pierced splat back, later to be used in the billiard

Plate 3 John Rowntree & Sons' Café: Interior, ground floor

15



room at Miss Cranston's Buchanan Street Tea Rooms. Here, and in the main first floor room, large wall-panels were filled, probably with 'Japanese matting'16 - a feature to become typical of Walton's interiors. Above these panels on the first floor, the frieze contained large, stencilled plant motifs. A smaller, rather crowded room to the front of the building was furnished with Walton's ebonised chair with cane seat and panel back, later used extensively in his interiors for Kodak. The chairs were matched by black, hexagonal tables. Above a white-painted, panelled dado, the walls were covered with a repeat pattern of lily-of-the-valley flowers, either on wallpaper or stencilled on to fabric. Fireplaces in these other rooms were tiled, with much plainer grates. All round the building, fascinating, wrought-iron, electric light fittings hung from the ceiling in elaborate, curling leaf forms. Each held at least three bulbs, and the rooms seem well lit. Walton appears to have been attentive to servicing needs. Indeed, his firm took re- sponsibility for such things as plumbing, gasfitting, tile laying and 'the business of . . . Electrical Engineers'17 as well as the more obvious work connected with the work of interior decoration.

It is difficult to know what influence, if any, Fred Rowntree had on the design of the interior. Certainly their collaboration at Glenbank, Lenzie, in the same year produced a wood-panelled interior like the ground floor Café, with exposed ceiling beams in a similar, if slightly more refined, Arts and Crafts manner - and again in the new gallery for the Glasgow Society of Lady Artists' Club at 5 Blythswood Square, Glasgow (also 1896 and another collaboration of the two). A window that survives at 5 Blythswood Square bears some relation to the Café front at Scarborough, though it is not possible in either case to attribute definitely to one or the other. The fireplace in the Gallery, with its huge stone arch, sculpted head-piece and metal fire-dogs, can, however, quite definitely be attributed to Walton, not only through various documentary sources, but also because of its similarity to other fireplaces by Walton produced when he was working alone.18 This fireplace, still in situ, may have been designed almost concurrently with the one at the Rowntree's Café. It would be tempting to see the more ambitious finials at John Rowntree's as a development of the simpler ones at Blythswood Square, but, as will be discussed, there may be other reasons for the difference.

Part of Walton's account, submitted to John Rowntree & Sons for the work on the Café has survived.19 It contains, mainly, meticulously detailed costing of the repainting carried out in the service rooms, giving a clear idea of the finishes used: 'Berlin black' paint on most of the metalwork, wax and polish on most of the wood surfaces, 'Rose pink' stain for the woodwork in the ground floor service room, and 'purple stain' for the door of the Gentlemen's Lavatory. '1 ct. oil varnish and 1 ct. flat varnish' seems to have been used to finish most of the stained and painted surfaces. The charge for 'Men's time' was 1 Id per hour. Sadly, the costing of the work on the main rooms, furnishings, etc., is missing. The surviving part of the account covers only £44 12s 6d of a total bill for £661 2s Id. Walton had already, by the date of the final account, been paid £570 in five instalments from the period July 6th to November 11th. The work seems to have been in progress from at least as early as March 31st, which means that Walton was involved in the work for the greater part of 1896. The account was certified as correct by Fred Rowntree on the 9th December.

1896 also saw the construction of a new addition to the main building of William Rowntree's just up the street at nos. 33-9 Westborough. A certain mystery surrounds Walton's connection with this building. While Fred Rowntree was the architect of the extension,20 Walton designed a Tea Room c. 1897 which was apparently on the ground floor of the main building. However, a fireplace of Walton's design appears in the present restaurant, situated on an upper floor at the back of the store. An old photograph of the hat department shows a stencilled frieze in Walton's style. Furthermore, the windows of the Fred Rowntree extension contain stained glass which one would most naturally attribute to Walton. Mr Ralph Rowntree, the last Chairman of William Rowntree & Sons, tells me that he knows of no extensive scheme of interiors carried out by Walton in the store, nor of his collaboration with Fred Rowntree on the extension.21 Nothing now remains of the Tea Room on the ground floor, though illustrations appeared in Dekorative Kunst in 1899, 22 (Plate 4) and a watercolour of the interior survives in the William Rowntree archives. (Plate 5). The fireplace is massive, but simple: very plain stonework, with a (for Walton) more restrained grate, the finials taking the form of the initial 'R'. The fireplace still to be seen in the store's restaurant,23 otherwise identical, has no arched mantel but terminates at

16



the top with the heavy, horizontal member immediately above the opening. Without this crowning arch, the effect of the fireplace is entirely different and seems to anticipate the functional severity of 20th century forms. At the same time, the careful massing demonstrates Walton's architectural capabilities, which were to be developed later in his career.24

The ceiling of the Tea Room was gently curved, and this and the frieze were painted in a light colour and embellished with sinuous metalwork, partly ornamental and partly functioning as light fittings. The walls were panelled in leather; a continuation of the panelling in the form of a screen masking the approach to the kitchen. Most of the furniture was light and elegant; the tables with their slender, outward-curving legs, very reminiscent of Godwin; the chairs, quite original in design though perhaps closest to those of the late 18 th century.25 The overall effect is one of refinement and sophistication, no doubt aimed to be in keeping with the clientele and aspirations of the firm - and in marked contrast to the more chunky, hand-crafted character of the Café at No. 1 1 . The greater refinement of this Tea Room may well be Walton's response to the different locations: John Rowntree's opening off a busy shopping street while William Rowntree's was within an exclusive and sophisticated department store.

While Walton's furniture is carefully designed and often elegant and refined, his wall- decorations and two-dimensional work (especially in comparison with Charles Rennie Mackintosh) seem more naive, and unaffected. The frieze at William Rowntree's is painted with tight, single flower motifs and crowns. This naturalistic treatment is typical of Walton's early

Plate 4 William Rowntree & Sons' Tea Room: Fireplace

17



Plate 5 William Rowntree & Sons' Tea Room: Watercolour by Harry Wanless. (Courtesy Rowntrees of York and Scarborough)

Plate 6 Stained glass window in the carpet department of the William Rowntree store

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decorative work and in odd contrast to his more sophisticated furniture. The single tulip motif appears again in the oriel windows of the store's extension, so close in style to the wall-frieze, and to details in an earlier window by Walton, that it would seem to indicate that these are definitely his work. Further, the butterfly motif, used on two of the four extension windows, is a favourite of Walton's, appearing in several other interiors of this period. The stylised flower in another oriel (Plate 6), based on a carnation, is derived from traditional Persian patterns and was used commonly among Walton's contemporaries: the symbol used by C. R. Ashbee's Guild of Handicraft, for instance, is almost identical. The design is used again by Walton on a number of occasions, including a fabric at Glenbank. A third oriel, this time depicting a vase of flowers, is again characteristic of Walton. It is a much simplified development of panels in the earlier stained glass window of 4 Devonshire Gardens, Glasgow, and can be seen also as a leaded precedent of some of his murals at Buchanan Street. The design in the fourth oriel looks forward to Walton's use of the rose and briar at Elm Bank, York, completed in 1898. 26

This work for William Rowntree's must have run almost concurrently with the design of a series of varied refreshment rooms in a large new building erected for Miss Cranston at 91 Buchanan Street, Glasgow.27 Here the work was divided between Walton and the younger Charles Rennie Mackintosh, though Walton seems to have had the larger share. Walton's furniture for these rooms ranges from a fine, ebonised chair with cane seat and back (clearly inspired by late 18th century designs), to the same heavy, oak chair used in the Gentlemen's Coffee Room at John Rowntree's. Designs based on country ladderbacks and spindle-backed chairs were also used in these interiors. Each room had its own individual character: heavy, oak furniture in the billiard room, some dining and luncheon rooms with solid furniture and some in a lighter and more elegant style. The design of the ground floor Cafe at No. 1 1 Westborough, as already noted, had affinities with a typical Arts and Crafts domestic interior. Walton also tended to keep, in a more general way, to the domestic Victorian tradition of differentiating the character of rooms with different functions: for example, darker, heavier furniture for halls, billiard rooms and gentlemen's rooms; lighter, more elegant furniture for ladies' rooms and drawing rooms. Walton often treated his luncheon rooms as he might have treated a drawing room in a private house, and used more solid furniture in his dining rooms.

Walton's approach, then, to his work for commercial businesses like Miss Cranston's and the Rowntree firms is not radically different to his domestic work. One may at first suspect that he was simply insensitive to the difference of function, applying a style established through his work on domestic commissions indiscriminately to other types of work. However, the domestic nature of these interiors can be understood as a deliberate choice. The rise of non-alcoholic refreshment rooms was due in part to the work of the Temperance Movement. Both the Cranstons and the Rowntrees (a Quaker family) were connected with the Movement. Walton's choice of an intimate, homely atmosphere could be seen as an attempt to make these rooms as different as possible from the glass and glitter of contemporary public houses, while at the same time benefitting from the social relaxation and comfort encouraged by domestic surroundings. Walton also avoided the starchy and uncomfortable atmosphere of the Temperance Movement's own 'Coffee Public Houses', where attempts were often made to 'improve' the customers by the anti-drink texts and mottoes decorating the walls. The remarks of a contemporary visitor seem to bear this out. Commenting on one of Walton's rooms at Buchanan Street, W.J. Warren writes:

'. . . everything is dainty and refreshing, just what we want in a tea-room. Personally I rather fancy drinking my tea amid a shower of stencilled rose leaves. In fact we do not like moral or educational lessons on our wall, but rather just a scheme which will give us rest without ennui, interest without optical excitement.'28

The idea of a sensitivity to function and atmosphere in Walton's work seems confirmed by the subtle differences between the fireplace at 5 Blythswood Square - an artists' gallery in an industrial city - and the more domestic brick fireplace at John Rowntree's - a cafe in a seaside town. The austere stonework surround of the Gallery fireplace is certainly more suitable to the formal atmosphere expected in a gallery, while the brickwork hearth and surround at the Café is particularly appropriate in its smaller scale and rougher finish, to more informal situations. The heavy, hand-beaten, copper and wrought iron fire-dogs at the Café are again less formal than the stiffer, more finished ones at the Gallery.

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While a sensitivity seems evident, Walton is not, either in commercial or private commissions, averse to using the same designs on a number of occasions, as opposed to producing exclusive designs for each client in the manner of some contemporary Arts and Crafts designers. This might be seen as the approach of a commercial business of 'jobbing' decorators (though, incidentally, it is comparable to the operation of Morris' firm). However, Walton's work does show a clear continuation and development of ideas from one job to the next, rather than any direct repetition of catalogued styles. Each job has a new combination of elements and new designs in addition to more familiar ones. Stained glass and the overall design of fireplaces were rarely, if ever, repeated in an identical form. Where stencil designs and furniture were used over again, they were often produced in new colourways or materials and with different detailing.

Despite the subtlety and attention to detail of the firm's interior work, the running of a decorating business does seem to mark a difference between Walton and his architectural contemporaries like Voysey, Mackintosh, Baillie Scott etc. Walton seems to have felt this himself, particularly at this time: the relinquishment of his independent control of the firm, his move of interest to the London scene, and his evident ambition to be in architectural practice, all within the next few years, indicate his dissatisfaction with the image of 'decorator' generated by his association with the firm. Not that Walton's firm was ever run on fully trade lines. Although firms like Wylie and Lochhead were producing well-designed, stylish modern furniture with a high quality finish, Walton would not have seen himself in direct competition with them. The operation of his business was more on the one to one scale of individual commissions for clients who were either friends or gained by personal recommendation (his public tea-room work can also be seen in this context) . His showrooms and furniture sales were probably a supporting factor rather than his main concern. His very limited use of advertising is significant in this light too. Unlike the bulk of the cabinet-making trade, which relied heavily on advertising, the Company's success seems to have been achieved through reputation. To Walton, the 'legitimate' forms of advertisement (and those used by the architectural profession) were such things as showing work in exhibitions, having work illustrated in professional journals and being recommended by satisfied clients. This was the pattern of Walton's activities by the last years of the 19th century. The 1890s were clearly crucial years for the firm: the 1896-7 period was of particular significance. The expansion to the Yorkshire area marks an important step in the growth of the firm, while the design of the Buchanan Street Tea Rooms in Glasgow was probably the firm's

biggest commission to date and one that was to gain significant public attention. This growth of public recognition and the establishment of the Company's reputation seems to have freed Walton to some extent from continuing a complete commitment to the running of the firm, and from a total reliance on the Company as a financial support. His decreasing commitment to the firm took the form, in the 1896-7 period, of negotiations to form George Walton & Co. into a limited, joint-stock company with a board of directors. 29 While Walton retained full control over all artistic decisions and agreed to take the position of Managing Director for five years, he was committed to only two months attendance at the Glasgow premises in any one year. By 1898, Walton had moved permanently to London and had resigned directorship by 1903, leaving the firm to fend for itself.30

It is interesting that Walton's rejection of trade connections did not mean an immediate abandonment of work for commercial organisations. Indeed, his involvement in this type of work increased in the next few years and though it waned after the boom of the Kodak period, he continued producing publicity material for Wellington and Ward at least until the First World War.

One of Walton's abilities, made clear in his work for the Rowntree refreshment rooms, is his adaptability to different types of work. The early years in London were to see the design of shops, exhibitions, table glass, textiles, photographic studios and complete architectural work, as well as his continuing involvement in the design of domestic interiors. Walton's sensitivity to different requirements is coupled with a lack of severity or dogmatism in his work as a whole. He had the ability to produce fine individual designs in the context of pleasing and enjoyable interiors, which were both comfortable and relaxing - without being too demanding. The Rowntree refreshment rooms are typical in this respect. As in most of his public work of this

period, the venture was highly successful. Despite the rather patronising view of local

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Scarborough residents, the popularity of these refreshment rooms in the elite circles of Scarborough is amply demonstrated (again by W. J. Warren) in this contemporary comment:

'I remember some years ago for the first time seeing the Rowntree's Café at Scarborough, which (Walton) decorated. Now, Scarborough is the epitome of the common place "proper thing". There are, or there were until Walton appeared, certain rules to be observed in dress, in demeanour, and even in one's decorations. To have omitted in the domestic embellishment of a Scarborough house, a German print of the Prodigal Son was as serious an offence - and what could be more serious? - as to appear on the evening promenade in flannels and a blazer. Since the beautified Rowntree's Café I do not suggest he has influenced to any marked degree the dress or demeanour of Scarborough visitors, nor has, perhaps, the Prodigal lost all sympathy, but still there is George Walton everywhere; and now the rank and fashion of Scarborough refuse to sip tea except within George Walton clad walls.31

References 1 In a letter to the writer, 25th October 1980. 2 Old and New Scarborough Illustrated. Castle Press Series, 1907. 3 Ibid. 4 Held at the North Yorkshire County Record Office, Northallerton. 5 For a good source on Scarborough history, see Arthur Rowntree's History of Scarborough,]. M. Dent & Sons Ltd,

1931. 6 A delightful advert by Walton for the firm can be seen in Scarborough - the Queen of Watering Places (an illustrated lodging-house guide to Scarborough and District), W. Smith, Scarborough, 1900, p. 4 of the advertisements.

7 Father of Richard Taylor and Managing Director of the firm from 1938-55. 8 The oriels of the store's extension are closely modelled on Shaw's adaption of the Palladian window, popularised in his 'Queen Anne' style houses.

9 Illustrated in H. Dan and E. C. Morgan Wilmott, English Shopfronts Old and New, London, 1907, Plate 50. 10 In the John Rowntree & Sons records held by Mr Richard Taylor. 11 The Studio, Vol. 6, No. 32, Nov. 1895, pp. 101-8. 12 Ibid., p. 106. 13 The firedogs are in the V & A, Circ. 120 & A - 1953. 14 In a letter to the writer, op. cit. 15 I have been unable to see it as its location is unknown. 16 The material used in similar panelling at Elm Bank, York, c.f. The Studio , Vol. 22, No. 95, Feb. 1901, p. 38. 17 Listed in the Memorandum and Articles of Association of George Walton & Co. Ltd. 18 There is some difficulty in dating this fireplace as Walton was first commissioned to work on the gallery in 1896

(Fred Rowntree's drawings for the structural alterations are dated April 2nd). Subsequently the gallery was destroyed by fire and redesigned by Walton in 1898. Whether the original work was restored or a completely new design created is not clear, but attribution of the grate and tiling to Mackintosh in the History of the Glasgow Society of Lady Artists 3 Club , privately printed in 1950, is incorrect, both according to Walton's relatives (c.f. Glasgow Herald, 13th Dec. 1971, letter from Constance Ellis) and because of its too close correspondence to Walton's fireplace designs at Ledcameroch, Bearsden (c.f. Academy Architecture, Vol. 13, 1898, p. 70) and elsewhere.

19 John Rowntree & Sons records. 20 Source of information: Mr Ralph K. Rowntree, in a letter to the writer dated 4th July 1980. 21 Ibid. 22 Vol. 5, pp. 139, 141, 144. The fireplace on the left of page 139 is not recognised by any of the people I have

contacted in connection with either of the Rowntree firms. It seems most likely that it was in the William Rowntree store, but as there is no real evidence for this, and ample alternative material, I have left it out of the present discussion.

23 The grate is now missing.

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24 This fireplace bears comparison with Mackintosh's later fireplace in the Board Room of the Glasgow School of Art, illustrated in Roger Billcliffe's Charles Rennie Mackintosh , the complete furniture, furniture drawings and interior designs, Lutterworth Press, 1979, p. 67 (1899. K).

25 Other surviving photographs of the Tea Room (in the RIBA Drawings Collection) show, in contrast, rather awkward looking, leather-upholstered armchairs, very heavy in comparison with the elegant wooden furniture. These are uncharacteristic, as most of Walton's upholstered furniture is highly successful.

26 Walton's designs for stained and leaded glass become more and more competent in the years to come. Some early figurai pieces are quite impressive, but the later decorative work seems to me to be his greatest achievement in this medium, especially when he uses various types of plain glass in combination - achieving marvellous effects with very limited means. Some of his later leaded glass of this type is surprisingly jokey: 'drips' of condensation in conservatory windows and blobs of glass that ťrun' down the pane.

27 For a discussion of the dating of the Buchanan Street Tea Room designs see R. Billcliffe, op. cit., p. 39. 28 The Amateur Photographer, 11th August 1899, p. 112. 29 Fred Rown tree's close association with Walton at this time is reflected in the fact that he bought up 50 shares in Walton's Company at the time it was set up (only 5 less than Walton) and that between them they held more than 50% of the shares sold in the first year.

30 Which it failed to do. The Company was voluntarily wound up c. 1905. 31 The Amateur Photographer , loc. cit., p. 1 1 1.

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Documents

George Walton & Co: Work for Commercial Organisations. The Rowntree Firms