Scotland On Sunday

The only church built to the designs of Scottish architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh is to be restored with the help of a £357,000 grant. The A-listed Queen's Cross Church in Maryhill, Glasgow, was designed by Mackintosh in 1896 but was closed by the Church of Scotland in the mid-1970s due to falling congregations. Although it has been preserved by the Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society, the fabric of the building is deteriorating. The grant, to be announced this week by the Heritage Lottery Fund, will pay for essential repairs to the stonework, woodwork, roof, guttering and leaded windows. Building work is due to commence early next year and, once completed, the former church will become the central Mackintosh Resource Centre for the city, linking all of Glasgow's Mackintosh properties.