Why is Mackintosh's only church flammable and unprotected?

“If we don't protect [Mackintosh’s buildings], we will lose them forever and the city has to wake up to that.” The words of Stuart Robertson, executive director of the Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society, spoken to the BBC in 2023. 

Robertson also happens to be the man who has ignored multiple requests for comment, clarification and explanation from The Bell over the past three months as to why the society is yet to install any fire suppression system at the Mackintosh-designed Queen’s Cross Church, home of the Mackintosh Society since 1977. For over two years under Robertson’s leadership, the society has sat on a document which deemed the lack of any fire suppression system at the category A-listed building of the highest possible risk. 

When we first heard these allegations about a lack of fire safety at Queen’s Cross Church earlier this year, we had other things on our mind. It was mid-April, and the 52 year-old Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society was tearing itself to pieces over a pair of pews which had been sawn up and removed from Mackintosh’s only church on Garscube Road. 

Nonetheless, we pinged off an email to Robertson. We asked if he could confirm if work was being carried out on a fire suppression system in Queen’s Cross, or if it had already been put in place. We received no response, suggesting there may be something to the allegation that the church had no suppression system whatsoever. After all, if one had been installed, why wouldn’t its director simply say so? 

Meanwhile, the pews news continued to brew, with Robertson — who has been in post since 2001 — becoming increasingly beleaguered. His position was already precarious when an investigation by council enforcement officers found that the society’s actions had violated planning conditions by permitting pews of “considerable architectural significance” to be sawn up and sold on Facebook. Besides, we’d shown that both Robertson and the society’s chairman directly contradicted themselves in our own reporting on the pews stooshie. 

By the time the AGM rolled around in June, Robertson announced he would be stepping down, staying on in post until February to give time to appoint a successor. At the time, Robertson said his decision to stand down was unconnected with the pews debacle. The timeline strongly suggests otherwise. 

Then, towards the end of June, we received an email containing a fire suppression report that had been conducted for Queen’s Cross from August 2022. It provided an overview of the different types of suppression systems that could potentially serve — and save — the Mackintosh Church in the event of a fire. The report concluded that a low pressure misting system would protect all the rooms, bring a “low/medium” water damage risk to fabric and would cost £66,000 to install. A look at the Mackintosh Society’s accounts on Companies House showed they had in excess of £2m in funds in the year ending December 1 2023. 

Through investigation and enquiry, we have come to the conclusion that the Mackintosh Society, under Robertson’s leadership, has sat on this report for almost three years — despite members having deemed the lack of a suppression system at the church a high risk to the building.