Ruchill Church Hall

Ruchill Church Hall, designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, was built as a mission for the Free Church of Scotland and completed in 1899. It is located at 15/17 Shakespeare Street, a side road off Maryhill Road, Glasgow, Scotland, close to the bridge which takes Ruchill Street across the Forth and Clyde Canal to the Ruchill area, and near a shopping centre on the main road. The adjacent church closer to the canal was constructed later, designed by a different architect.

The building provides two halls, with the main hall having a section divided off by a sliding folding partition, and two committee rooms. It is in active use by the congregation of the church, and is open daily providing community facilities as well as a "Mackintosh Tea Room" providing teas and snacks in the main hall for anyone wanting to visit.

Entering from Shakespeare Street, a committee room is to the right, while to the left a passageway leads past a screened washbasin to a door to the stairwell. Next on the left is a small kitchen / servery, while straight ahead from the main entrance doors lead into the corner of the main hall. On the right a large bay is separated off from the main hall with a sliding folding partition incorporating high level glazed panels with Mackintosh's characteristic stained glass inserts.

The stair leads up to a short corridor past toilet facilities located above the kitchen, leading to an upper committee room directly above the committee room downstairs, and to an upper hall above the bay off the main hall. These two rooms are separated by a sliding folding partition which can be opened to form one long rectangular space. The roof structure to the upper committee room and hall is exposed, with roof lights to both rooms, and its gable forms a strong shape to the right of the front elevation.

Additional pictures

Image:Ruchill Church at canal.jpg, View of the church from the canal
Image:Ruchill Church Hall.jpg, The halls from Shakespeare Street
Image:Ruchill Church Hall0.jpg, The halls from Ruchill Street
Image:Ruchill Church Hall9.jpg, Passageway between hall and church
Image:Ruchill Church Hall2.jpg, Close up of the stair tower
Image:Ruchill Church Hall18.jpg, Close up at main entrance
Image:Ruchill Church Hall3.jpg, Tea room in main hall
Image:Ruchill Church Hall5.jpg, Roof truss inside hall
Image:Ruchill Church Hall4.jpg, Roof truss at entrance end of hall
Image:Ruchill Church Hall6.jpg, Folding partition to bay off hall
Image:Ruchill Church Hall19.jpg, Committee room door, kitchen sliding door
Image:Ruchill Church Hall11.jpg, Committee room
Image:Ruchill Church Hall12.jpg, Committee room door detail
Image:Ruchill Church Hall13.jpg, screen (modern?) in passageway to stair
Image:Ruchill Church Hall14.jpg, Stairwell
Image:Ruchill Church Hall15.jpg, Upper committee room
Image:Ruchill Church Hall16.jpg, Upper committee room - partition to hall
Image:Ruchill Church Hall17.jpg, Upper hall

External links

information including opening times

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Churches completed in 1899
19th-century churches in the United Kingdom
Category A listed buildings in Glasgow
Charles Rennie Mackintosh buildings
Art Nouveau architecture in Glasgow
Churches in Glasgow
Maryhill