Glasgow Mackintosh tearoom to be restored at V&A Dundee

The interior of the Charles Rennie Mackintosh-designed tearoom was salvaged in the 1970s

The restored interior Charles Rennie Mackintosh tearoom in Glasgow is to form a central exhibit at the V&A Dundee when it opens in 2018.

The Dundee team have joined forces with Glasgow Museums to reassemble the Oak Room from the Ingram Street Tearooms.

A total of 600 pieces of the interior were salvaged by Glasgow City Council when the city tearoom was redeveloped as a hotel in the 1970s.

Only a small part of the room has ever been on display in Glasgow.

Mackintosh designed the Oak Room of the Ingram Street tearoom in 1907, and it is widely acknowledged as an important interior which informed his design for the Glasgow School of Art library, completed two years later.

The interior, which was fitted into a former Victorian warehouse for entrepreneur Catherine Cranston, last functioned as a tearoom in the 1950s.

When it was dismantled, each room was numbered, each wall given a reference, and each piece of panelling a code, which was all recorded in plans and elevations to aid reassembly.

The complex restoration project has been funded by a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund and a loan from Glasgow Life.

Construction of the museum on the banks of the Tay is scheduled to be complete in 2017

V&A Dundee director Philip Long said the museum would "celebrate the best of Scottish and international design creativity".

He said: "When we set about planning the Scottish Design Galleries for V&A Dundee it was vital Mackintosh, recognised around the world as one of the great and most influential of designers, was represented appropriately. It is extremely fitting that the public will be able to see such a major work by him at the heart of that story.

"We are delighted to work jointly with Glasgow Life on the conservation and restoration of this important historic interior and to draw on their extensive Mackintosh expertise."

Archie Graham, chairman of Glasgow Life and depute leader of Glasgow City Council, added: "This is a fantastic example of joint working, which will bring back this lost gem for public display, confirming Mackintosh's unique and internationally significant contribution to Scottish design history.

"Each time our staff work on these rooms they discover Mackintosh's ingenuity for creatively arranging interior spaces into complete works of art. We hope this exciting collaborative project will allow us to uncover many more of Mackintosh's design secrets for everyone to enjoy."

Construction of the £45m V&A Dundee museum is under way on the banks of the Tay, with the Kengo Kuma-designed building due to be completed by the end of 2017.