This article was written by Małgorzata Zdybiewska from TTC in Radom. In her article she writes about two very special places: a tearoom in Glasgow and a café in Kraków linked by similar artistic ideas.

Victorian Glasgow

Victorian Glasgow was a rapidly developing city of the British Empire with its share of the problems caused by overpopulation, lack of sanitary facilities and occasional outbreaks of cholera or typhus. The splendour of newly erected buildings contrasted with the slums in the old quarters of the city. The poor lived in stinking tenements infested with bugs and cockroaches, piled on top of each other and suffering from a lack of fresh drinking water. The rich commissioned elegant expensive villas or palaces to be built by fashionable architects. In the second half of the 19^th century the city prospered and experienced a significant artistic renaissance.

Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1869-1928)

Charles Rennie Mackintosh was a new-generation architect designer, graduate of the Glasgow School of Art and an assistant in the architects’ office of Honeyman and Keppie. Working together with the Macdonald sisters, Margaret and Frances, and Herbert MacNair he formed an artistic group called The Four which experimented with new decorative styles producing book illustrations, prints, posters, decorated metal, glass and plaster art objects. The Pre-Raphaelites and the English Crafts Movement influenced the Scottish artists but the most evident in their work were Art Nouveau and Symbolism. In 1903 Miss Catherine Cranston, a Glaswegian businesswoman and an art lover, commissioned Charles Rennie Mackintosh to design the Willow Tea Rooms.

Miss Catherine Cranston

Miss Catherine Cranston was a sister of a tea merchant and an astute businesswoman. Starting with a single teashop, she created an impressive empire of tearooms that were a breath of fresh air. The Glasgow tearoom was a new social phenomenon in the 1880s with no parallel in other British cities. The tearooms offered a safe public space to middle class women and men who were eager to find refuge from gin shops and dark pubs. There were separate rooms for ladies and gentlemen, and rooms where both sexes could mingle. The tearooms were promoted by the Temperance Movement that was fighting against the alcoholism so typical of fast growing industrial cities and played a vital role as places for meetings, refreshment and also as art galleries.

Miss Cranston and Charles Rennie Mackintosh

In Miss Cranston, Charles Rennie Mackintosh found an ideal client who shared his vision of bringing art into every aspect of life and within everyone’s reach. Their partnership lasted twenty years and in spite of difficulties was very successful. Miss Cranston’s first commission was for murals and decorations in the Buchanan Street Tea Rooms, then Mackintosh designed furniture for those in Argyle Street followed by the White Dining Room at Ingram Street in 1900. In 1903 he was given the sole responsibility for designing and decorating a new building, the Willow Tea Rooms. This particular project was very special as it was the only one for Miss Cranston in which Mackintosh designed both interior and exterior.

The Willow Tea Rooms

The Willow Tea Rooms are in Glasgow’s fashionable Sauchiehall Street. Sauchiehall means the alley or lane of willows which provided the name and motif for the premises. Mackintosh designed stylised furniture, stained glass and a frieze of plaster panels collaborating with his wife, Margaret, on the project. There was nothing too trivial for their attention: they controlled every detail from room interior  decoration and the staircase, to the menu and ending with the waitresses uniforms. Many Art Nouveau artists in different countries shared Mackintosh’s conception of a room as a work of art in which every detail must form an integral part and be subordinated to the whole. Among them was a Polish interior designer, Karol Frycz, who designed the interior of the café which had become the centre of bohemian life in Kraków and the seat of the Green Balloon cabaret.

19^th century Kraków

During the 19^th century Poland had been partitioned by three powers: Russia, Prussia and Austria. Kraków was in the centre of Galicia, which since 1846 was under the Austrian rule and enjoyed relative freedom in contrast to the rest of Poland. Life in 19^th century Kraków was stifled by the political situation and economic problems however it became the spiritual capital of Poland with a mission to safeguard the traditions and great moments in Polish history. At the same time it had close links with other cities where artistic life flourished such as Paris, Vienna and Munich. Despite the difficult political and economic situation in Galicia, artists in Kraków were fully aware of changes in the world of the arts. Not only did they travel widely and have opportunities to study in the best art schools all around Europe but they could also learn about new artistic movements from several art periodicals published in Kraków in those days. Among them the most renowned was Życie published between 1887-1900. It was a magazine devoted to literature and art whose contributors included the most prominent representatives of the Young Poland Movement: Stanisław Wyspiański, Stanisław Przybyszewski and Leon Wyczółkowski. Generally, Życie provided up-to-date and comprehensive information as regards artistic events taking place in many countries including Great Britain.

Karol Frycz (1877-1963)

Karol Frycz was a truly cosmopolitan artist who studied at the Polytechnic in Munich. In 1901 he moved to London where, under the direction of Hubert Herkomer at the London School of Industrial Design, he learned the new decorative styles introduced by William Morris. Frycz continued his studies in Paris at Julien’s Academy. He then returned to Kraków and worked under the artistic supervision of two great Polish Art Nouveau artists: Józef Mehoffer and Stanisław Wyspiański. Later he travelled to Vienna where he was involved in the Viennese Secessionist Movement. On his return home to Kraków in 1911 Karol Frycz designed one of the rooms in the café called Jama Michalika.

Jan Apolinary Michalik

Jan Apolinary Michalik was a pastry cook who after a period of apprenticeship in Lwów came to Kraków and established a patisserie there in 1895. At first it was called Lvov Café and as it was located in the vicinity of the Academy of Fine Arts, artists who used to drop in to have breakfast or supper frequented it. They would often draw pictures on the cafés walls, which made the owner unhappy and to stop them from being ruined he provided them with large sheets of paper and coloured pencils. It was the beginning of a rich collection of works which were later displayed on the café walls. At first, Jan Michalik was not very happy about the artists’ presence but later he understood that it was a good business opportunity. Eventually, the artists made him famous and well off. In 1905 they set up the cabaret called the Green Balloon here with performances based on texts written by Tadeusz Boy-Żeleński, attracting a large audience. In 1910 Jan Michalik decided to enlarge and redecorate his premises. He commissioned the renovation of the interior with Franciszek Mączyński, an architect and Karol Frycz, an interior designer. The renovation turned out to be very successful creating the elegant Art Nouveau interior which can still be admired today.

Jama Michalika Café, 45 Floriańska St.

Though eclectic in character the interior designed by Frycz was an interesting achievement from an artistic point of view. With its charming Art Nouveau lamp shades, stained-glass decorative panels, high back chairs made of dark wood, heavy leather-made sofas, an original doorframe supported by barrel-shaped pillars and heavy mirrors in curved frames, it provided a perfect bohemian hide-out for generations of art students from the nearby Academy. Over the years the café has become a museum of the fin-de-siecle, almost a shrine to the Polish Art Nouveau artists of Kraków. It is also proof that Art Nouveau as a truly international style travelled across European borders without any difficulty. Both Karol Frycz and Charles Rennie Mackintosh as designers shared the same common artistic goal: the creation of a unified artistic whole.

Tea or Coffee?

Luckily for visitors, both places, the Willow Tea Rooms in Glasgow and Jama Michalika in Kraków, have not lost their primary function and still serve tea, coffee and cakes as they used to in the past. Linked by similar artistic ideas they attract hordes of tourists who want to indulge themselves in an Art Nouveau interior that is a nostalgic reminder of the fashions and styles of the 19^th and the beginning of the 20^th centuries.

A perfect place for a cup of tea is the Salon de Luxe in the Willow Tea Rooms. Restored to its previous glory, it is a white intimate mirrored interior. Sitting in high-backed chairs, painted silver and upholstered in purple velvet, and drinking tea you can admire the chandelier which is a cascade of coloured glass balls, and a gesso panel by Margaret Macdonald, Mackintosh’s wife, showing Art Nouveau figures of women.

On the other hand, if you want a perfect cup of black coffee go to Jama Michalika for a taste of 19^th century bohemian life in Kraków. There sipping your coffee in the dark colourful interior designed by Karol Frycz you can free your imagination and see Kraków’s artists and writers in their wide black hats and cloaks, smoking cigars and busy drawing at their tables under the green balloon which gave its name to the artistic cabaret they created there.

To find out more about the places and designers discussed in this article try the following links:

The Willow Tea-rooms www.willowtearooms.co.uk/links.htm

Charles Rennie Mackintosh www.charlesrenniemac.co.uk/crm_willow.htm

Jama Michalika www.krakow.pl/en/kultura/kabarety/jamamichalikagb.php

Other webpage items

Eating and Drinking in Kraków - is an orienteering activity used to introduce the variety of cultures in Kraków, via its cafes, pubs and restaurants. It was first used with an international group of summer school participants but is a good example of an investigative fieldwork activity which could easily be put together for any other location. If you are in Kraków try it out for yourself …

Further materials and activities on Kraków restaurants - including extended fieldwork visits - can be found in Food and the Senses

Tea contains material from an FCO publication on both the drink and the light meal

Classroom Ideas

The above short texts can be used for a jigsaw activity. Print out the text, cut it into sections (there are 10 but withhold the last - Tea or Coffee?) and distribute them among your students individually or in pairs.

First give each student (or pair) the following questions:

What was 19^th century Glasgow like?

1. Who was Charles Rennie Mackintosh?
2. Who was Miss Cranston and what did she do in Glasgow?
3. What interests did Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Miss Cranston share?
4. Where are the Willow Tea Rooms and what did Charles Rennie Mackintosh do there?
5. What was 19^th century Kraków like?
6. Who was Karol Frycz?
7. Who was Apolinary Michalik and what happened in his café?
8. Where is Jama Michalika and what does it look like?

The students’ task is to find answers by talking to the others and noting down the answers. This activity should take about 10 minutes.

Secondly the students should organise themselves into a row with the whole text in the correct order - (the whole text could then be read from the beginning). Ask the students to comment on the connections between the Willow Tea Rooms and Jama Michalika.

Finally give out the last section - Tea or Coffee? Ask the students to compare and contrast the Willow Tea Rooms and Jama Michalika today, and then which place appeals to them more and why.