The Herald

Queen's Cross Church

One of Charles Rennie Mackintosh's most mysterious, little-known buildings has been restored at a cost of £1m. The Queen's Cross Church, in Maryhill, Glasgow, is regarded as a curious gem of world architecture and contains some of the iconic architect's purest work. Experts struggle to explain the meaning behind some of its details, including carvings of birds and bees on the communion table and chairs, which could be a teasing reference to sexual reproduction. The church, built in 1897-99 for the Free Church, contains design allusions which are gothic, pagan and Roman Catholic, such as an Italian-style water bowl built into the stone. It even includes an imitation pre-Reformation rood beam, a very non-presbyterian, English symbol seen nowhere else in Scotland. There is also a special site for an organ, although no music is played in the Free Church. One magnificent stained glass window features a giant blue heart, the other a puzzling green T shape, which may or may not be Mackintosh's stylised version of a cross. "We'll never know because he never wrote down the meanings. It is the mystery of Mackintosh," says Stuart Robertson, the director of the Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society.