Designed in London, made on The Isle of Man, delivered to Northampton
Northampton model engineer W.J Bassett-Lowke ( 1877-1953 ) was an energetic driven man with wide ranging interests in modern design and manufacturing. His search for specialist providers to match his esoteric home furnishing tastes lead him in 1916 both to Charles Rennie Mackintosh in London and around the same time to a group of German expert cabinet makers interned on the Isle of Man.
These business relationships persisted across and beyond the Great War period. Mackintosh provided a stream of furniture designs often shaped through sustained dialogue with this most demanding of clients; many were rejected. Of those that were taken forward Bassett-Lowke often outsourced their production to his stable of offshore captive makers. The Knockaloe Internment Camp opened in 1914 and the furniture-making workshop was established under the Foremanship of Charles Matt. Many of the interned émigré craftsmen had worked pre-war in London’s thriving quality East End furniture firms that were subsequently decimated by internment.
Charles Matt. Foreman of Knockaloe Camp Furniture-Making Workshop. c.1918. Image: Manx Museum PG/7870/41696
Interned Craftsmen of Knockaloe Camp. c.1918. Image: Manx Museum
Most of the Mackintosh furniture designs from this period are markedly ‘severe and plain’ ( Bassett-Lowke’s written instruction to the designer in 1917 ) and represent an extreme departure from what went before. Roger Bilcliffe’s analysis that Mackintosh was pushed to proto-modernism by his client is plainly evidenced in a series of spare, barely adorned linear works that emerged over those few years [ 1 ] .
Furniture designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh and made at Knockaloe Camp, Isle of Man during WW1. Top left: Wash stand. 1917. Photo: National Museum of Scotland. Top right: Dressing table. 1917. Photo: V&A. Bottom: Armchair. Photo: V&A.
Bassett-Lowke’s design-evangelism reached Frank Jones, his brother-in-law, in early 1919 and a scheme for his new dining room was commissioned from Mackintosh. Jones worked in the family shoe firm Crockett & Jones, co-founded by his father. Great War army boot contracts generated wealth and rapid growth for the business. Jones bought no 5 The Drive around seven years into his marriage and the 1911 census shows an extended family household of six.
Frank Jones c.1891 Photo: Crockett & Jones Ltd
This substantial four storey late Victorian semi detached house ( c.1880 ) in the leafy Racecourse district represented a step up from their previous small terrace around the corner from the factory. The new home offered increased space and a more salubrious environment whilst retaining quick access to work a ten minute walk away. The map below shows the relative locations.
Jones’ engagement of Mackintosh followed a similar brief three years previously for Bassett-Lowke’s own dining room at 78 Derngate. Mackintosh also designed furniture and wall treatments for Bassett-Lowke’s Candida Cottage and this work formed the basis of the designs later sold to Jones.
At 5 The Drive however a larger room, budget and possibly familial rivalry lead to a design which outshines its town centre forerunner. This is due in part to Mackintosh seemingly having had the freedom to produce a complete scheme and the result is a far more coherent and integrated affair than at 78 Derngate which clearly showed the hand of the client and is less successful for it.
The room at The Drive featured a suite of furniture: sideboard, serving trolley, dining table and chairs with built in elements comprising four wall mounted lanterns, picture rail, fire surround with mantel mirror, a pair of glazed display storage cabinets fitted to the chimney recesses along with a stencilled wall treatment.
Detail: Design drawing for 5 The Drive. C. R. Mackintosh. 1919. Image: Hunterian GLAHA41689
Mackintosh – designed furniture post manufacture at Knockaloe. c.1918. Image: Manx Museum PG/7870/41659
The completed dining room at 5 The Drive. C. R. Mackintosh. 1919. Image: Hunterian GLAHA52669
Surviving photographs and drawings establish a clear Knockaloe provenance for the moveable Mackintosh furniture produced for Jones. Less certain are the origins of the fixed elements. Though similar in overall concept to the Derngate dining room the detailing and quality of manufacture attest to superior expertise in production. It would be unsurprising to learn that these pieces also were made at Knockaloe but this is unconfirmed. Flat pack furniture was made and shipped from the Camp [ 2 ] so a bespoke ‘kit of parts’ assembled on site would certainly have been a possibility. Comparison of the extant moveable furniture ( such as a the sideboard detailed below ) and the built in furniture reveals compelling similarities in appearance adding further weight to an argument for a single source of all. At some future point a scientific comparison of materials from both fixed and moveable elements may help to settle this question.
Our visit
It was a great pleasure to receive an invitation to visit the room just before the property was sold in 2020 and a delight to see that after a century it was still in excellent condition. Most noticeable was the quality of southern light from the large bay window and how well it plays within the space on Mackintosh’s cabinetwork which glows handsomely. Located at the front of the house the dining room is entered by a door original to the property but resurfaced on the interior face in figured oak to Mackintosh’s design and matching the rest of the room.
Detail: Design drawing for 5 The Drive. C. R. Mackintosh. 1919. The door facing design shown was simplified in execution. Image: Hunterian GLAHA41689
Door facing to dining room as executed at 5 The Drive. C. R. Mackintosh. 1919. Picture rail and reproduced wall stencil also shown. Photo: duille.com
Edge view of dining room door 5 The Drive showing oak facing applied to interior surface at right – design by C.R Mackintosh.1919. Also shown reproduced stencil to walls. Photo: duille.com
The fire surround is perhaps the most striking element of the whole scheme. Bright cobalt blue and celadon / sea green tiles are set in a rhythmic pattern in cement grey grout. They are a striking counterpoint to the subtle patina of the richly figured oak timberwork. and provide a colour clue for the original stencilwork ( now lost ). The fireback bears a bell motif indicating its origins from local firm Bells – still trading. Sadly the fire grate is missing. It’s probable that Mackintosh would have completed the scheme with a custom ironwork design as elsewhere. Tantalisingly the owner mentioned knowledge of drawings ( ‘thought to be by Mackintosh’ ) in the Bell archives but thus far these are untraceable.
Fireplace, surround and wall lanterns, 5 The Drive. C.R Mackintosh. 1919. Photo: duille.com
To either side of the chimney are beautifully made built-in cabinets with glazed display sections above and storage compartments below. Interiors contain adjustable shelving and in the lower sections are two pivoting pull-outs for coal and magazines. Subtle relief and moulding details lend richness to the design and rectangular or square inlays of casein-based plastic ( ‘radolith’ or ‘erinoid’ ) add restrained decoration to door pulls and the detailing of dividing rails . The door pull reverses, hidden from the light, still show the original bright green colour of the plastic. Some of these inlays are missing. The remaining ones are faded but in good condition and do not appear degraded as has happened to other inlays in similar material used by Mackintosh elsewhere. [ 3 ].
Glazed cabinet, fireplace, stencil and wall lantern detail, 5 The Drive. C.R Mackintosh. 1919. Photo: duille.com
Cabinet doorpulls with original plastic inlays, 5 The Drive. C.R. Mackintosh. 1919. Photo: duille.com
Pivoting magazine pullout and cabinet detail, 5 The Drive. C.R. Mackintosh. 1919. Photo: duille.com
Cabinet detailing showing original plastic inlays, 5 The Drive. C.R. Mackintosh. 1919. Photo: duille.com
Interior of wall lantern and stepped moulding to mantel mirror, 5 The Drive. C.R. Mackintosh. 1919. Photo: duille.com
Colour also features strongly in the stencil design used on the walls. The Hunterian archive contains a schematic [ 4 ] of this ( currently and incorrectly we think attributed to the earlier 78 Derngate work ). First used at Bassett-Lowke’s ‘Candida Cottage’ c.1918 the dark ladder-form stencil echoes earlier Mackintosh chair designs but introduces colour blocks evoking futuristic and abstract graphics of the time and perhaps referencing the earlier design of the lights within the Library of The Glasgow School of Art. The stencilling was reproduced c.2000 using modern materials by local art students based on period photographs and original colour remnants from behind the light switch plates. This replacement scheme successfully gives an impression of the scale and layout of the original. A specialist reproduction as with other more recent Mackintosh recreations might restore greater subtlety which is evident in the extant originals.
Wall stencil design used at Candida Cottage and 5 The Drive. C. R. Mackintosh. c.1918. Image: Hunterian GLAHA41695
Moveable furniture from the room has subsequently been dispersed, the sideboard was sold in Philadelphia in 2019 [ 5 ]. It was acquired by the Knockaloe Charitable Trust and is now on display at their Visitor Centre – sited close to where it was first made – as of July 2026.
As detailed above W.J. Bassett – Lowke’s Candida Cottage featured furniture and decor foreshowing that later made for 5 The Drive. Several items from the ‘Candida Cottage’ dining suite are now in the collection of Brighton Museum including the service trolley. Another service trolley attributed to Mackintosh and similar in design to the Brighton trolley was sold by British Furniture dealer Paul Reeves around 2015 ( see photo below ). Visual comparison of the Brighton trolley with that sold by Paul Reeves suggests a similar origin. Roger Bilcliffe’s Mackintosh Furniture 1979 Catalogue raisonné lists the ‘Jones’ trolley as ‘untraced’ [ 6 ] and it seems probable that the pictured trolley now apparently in a US private collection originated from 5 The Drive.
Sideboard for 5 The Drive. C. R. Mackintosh. 1919. Image: Freeman’s Auctions Philadelphia
Service trolley ( possibly ) for 5 The Drive. C. R. Mackintosh. 1919. Image by kind permission of: paulreeveslondon.com
At the time of our visit the property was being prepared for sale. The dining room had for many years seen service as a study and the owner expressed his great enjoyment in using the room. It was interesting to hear how evening light from the wall lanterns created a mirrorball sparkle effect which animated the space magically. The romance of such an elegant space for family dining made one hundred years ago is even now tangible. This and the many thoughtful considered features of this room, a little-seen late career tour de force from Mackintosh pay further tribute to his mastery of design.
Update September 2025 5 The Drive was marketed for sale again in 2024 having undergone a period of internal remodelling and decoration. It remains unsold at the time of this update. Sales photos indicate that the Mackintosh designed dining room remains as described here. The room is protected by virtue of its official Grade II listing. The listing entry can be viewed on the Historic England website.
An earlier version of this article appeared in the Journal of The Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society in Spring 2024. The text was subsequently updated to include additional information as of September 2025 and again in July 2026.
References
Billcliffe, Roger. Charles Rennie Mackintosh: The Complete Furniture, Furniture Drawings and Interior Designs. Guildford and London: Lutterworth, 1979. P.239.
‘Milk and Modernism: Conservation of a Smoker’s Cabinet designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh’. S.Lang. 1996. ( V&A website accessed June 2023 ). As of September 2025 this article is no longer available online. A PDF facsimile has been retrieved and can be viewed here.
Wall stencil design. C. R. Mackintosh. c.1918. tinyurl.com/mackstencil ( Hunterian website accessed June 2023 )
Billcliffe, Roger. Charles Rennie Mackintosh: The Complete Furniture, Furniture Drawings and Interior Designs. Guildford and London: Lutterworth, 1979. P.240.
A visit to 5 The Drive
Designed in London, made on The Isle of Man, delivered to Northampton
Northampton model engineer W.J Bassett-Lowke ( 1877-1953 ) was an energetic driven man with wide ranging interests in modern design and manufacturing. His search for specialist providers to match his esoteric home furnishing tastes lead him in 1916 both to Charles Rennie Mackintosh in London and around the same time to a group of German expert cabinet makers interned on the Isle of Man.
These business relationships persisted across and beyond the Great War period. Mackintosh provided a stream of furniture designs often shaped through sustained dialogue with this most demanding of clients; many were rejected. Of those that were taken forward Bassett-Lowke often outsourced their production to his stable of offshore captive makers. The Knockaloe Internment Camp opened in 1914 and the furniture-making workshop was established under the Foremanship of Charles Matt. Many of the interned émigré craftsmen had worked pre-war in London’s thriving quality East End furniture firms that were subsequently decimated by internment.
Charles Matt. Foreman of Knockaloe Camp Furniture-Making Workshop. c.1918.
Image: Manx Museum PG/7870/41696
Interned Craftsmen of Knockaloe Camp. c.1918.
Image: Manx Museum
Most of the Mackintosh furniture designs from this period are markedly ‘severe and plain’ ( Bassett-Lowke’s written instruction to the designer in 1917 ) and represent an extreme departure from what went before. Roger Bilcliffe’s analysis that Mackintosh was pushed to proto-modernism by his client is plainly evidenced in a series of spare, barely adorned linear works that emerged over those few years [ 1 ] .
Furniture designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh and made at Knockaloe Camp, Isle of Man during WW1.
Top left: Wash stand. 1917. Photo: National Museum of Scotland. Top right: Dressing table. 1917. Photo: V&A. Bottom: Armchair. Photo: V&A.
Bassett-Lowke’s design-evangelism reached Frank Jones, his brother-in-law, in early 1919 and a scheme for his new dining room was commissioned from Mackintosh. Jones worked in the family shoe firm Crockett & Jones, co-founded by his father. Great War army boot contracts generated wealth and rapid growth for the business. Jones bought no 5 The Drive around seven years into his marriage and the 1911 census shows an extended family household of six.
Frank Jones c.1891
Photo: Crockett & Jones Ltd
This substantial four storey late Victorian semi detached house ( c.1880 ) in the leafy Racecourse district represented a step up from their previous small terrace around the corner from the factory. The new home offered increased space and a more salubrious environment whilst retaining quick access to work a ten minute walk away. The map below shows the relative locations.
Jones’ engagement of Mackintosh followed a similar brief three years previously for Bassett-Lowke’s own dining room at 78 Derngate. Mackintosh also designed furniture and wall treatments for Bassett-Lowke’s Candida Cottage and this work formed the basis of the designs later sold to Jones.
At 5 The Drive however a larger room, budget and possibly familial rivalry lead to a design which outshines its town centre forerunner. This is due in part to Mackintosh seemingly having had the freedom to produce a complete scheme and the result is a far more coherent and integrated affair than at 78 Derngate which clearly showed the hand of the client and is less successful for it.
The room at The Drive featured a suite of furniture: sideboard, serving trolley, dining table and chairs with built in elements comprising four wall mounted lanterns, picture rail, fire surround with mantel mirror, a pair of glazed display storage cabinets fitted to the chimney recesses along with a stencilled wall treatment.
Detail: Design drawing for 5 The Drive. C. R. Mackintosh. 1919.
Image: Hunterian GLAHA41689
Mackintosh – designed furniture post manufacture at Knockaloe. c.1918.
Image: Manx Museum PG/7870/41659
The completed dining room at 5 The Drive. C. R. Mackintosh. 1919.
Image: Hunterian GLAHA52669
Surviving photographs and drawings establish a clear Knockaloe provenance for the moveable Mackintosh furniture produced for Jones. Less certain are the origins of the fixed elements. Though similar in overall concept to the Derngate dining room the detailing and quality of manufacture attest to superior expertise in production. It would be unsurprising to learn that these pieces also were made at Knockaloe but this is unconfirmed. Flat pack furniture was made and shipped from the Camp [ 2 ] so a bespoke ‘kit of parts’ assembled on site would certainly have been a possibility. Comparison of the extant moveable furniture ( such as a the sideboard detailed below ) and the built in furniture reveals compelling similarities in appearance adding further weight to an argument for a single source of all. At some future point a scientific comparison of materials from both fixed and moveable elements may help to settle this question.
Our visit
It was a great pleasure to receive an invitation to visit the room just before the property was sold in 2020 and a delight to see that after a century it was still in excellent condition. Most noticeable was the quality of southern light from the large bay window and how well it plays within the space on Mackintosh’s cabinetwork which glows handsomely. Located at the front of the house the dining room is entered by a door original to the property but resurfaced on the interior face in figured oak to Mackintosh’s design and matching the rest of the room.
Detail: Design drawing for 5 The Drive. C. R. Mackintosh. 1919.
The door facing design shown was simplified in execution.
Image: Hunterian GLAHA41689
Door facing to dining room as executed at 5 The Drive. C. R. Mackintosh. 1919.
Picture rail and reproduced wall stencil also shown.
Photo: duille.com
Edge view of dining room door 5 The Drive showing oak facing applied to interior surface at right – design by C.R Mackintosh.1919. Also shown reproduced stencil to walls.
Photo: duille.com
The fire surround is perhaps the most striking element of the whole scheme. Bright cobalt blue and celadon / sea green tiles are set in a rhythmic pattern in cement grey grout. They are a striking counterpoint to the subtle patina of the richly figured oak timberwork. and provide a colour clue for the original stencilwork ( now lost ). The fireback bears a bell motif indicating its origins from local firm Bells – still trading. Sadly the fire grate is missing. It’s probable that Mackintosh would have completed the scheme with a custom ironwork design as elsewhere. Tantalisingly the owner mentioned knowledge of drawings ( ‘thought to be by Mackintosh’ ) in the Bell archives but thus far these are untraceable.
Fireplace, surround and wall lanterns, 5 The Drive. C.R Mackintosh. 1919.
Photo: duille.com
To either side of the chimney are beautifully made built-in cabinets with glazed display sections above and storage compartments below. Interiors contain adjustable shelving and in the lower sections are two pivoting pull-outs for coal and magazines. Subtle relief and moulding details lend richness to the design and rectangular or square inlays of casein-based plastic ( ‘radolith’ or ‘erinoid’ ) add restrained decoration to door pulls and the detailing of dividing rails . The door pull reverses, hidden from the light, still show the original bright green colour of the plastic. Some of these inlays are missing. The remaining ones are faded but in good condition and do not appear degraded as has happened to other inlays in similar material used by Mackintosh elsewhere. [ 3 ].
Glazed cabinet, fireplace, stencil and wall lantern detail, 5 The Drive. C.R Mackintosh. 1919.
Photo: duille.com
Cabinet doorpulls with original plastic inlays, 5 The Drive. C.R. Mackintosh. 1919.
Photo: duille.com
Pivoting magazine pullout and cabinet detail, 5 The Drive. C.R. Mackintosh. 1919.
Photo: duille.com
Cabinet detailing showing original plastic inlays, 5 The Drive. C.R. Mackintosh. 1919.
Photo: duille.com
Interior of wall lantern and stepped moulding to mantel mirror, 5 The Drive. C.R. Mackintosh. 1919.
Photo: duille.com
Colour also features strongly in the stencil design used on the walls. The Hunterian archive contains a schematic [ 4 ] of this ( currently and incorrectly we think attributed to the earlier 78 Derngate work ). First used at Bassett-Lowke’s ‘Candida Cottage’ c.1918 the dark ladder-form stencil echoes earlier Mackintosh chair designs but introduces colour blocks evoking futuristic and abstract graphics of the time and perhaps referencing the earlier design of the lights within the Library of The Glasgow School of Art. The stencilling was reproduced c.2000 using modern materials by local art students based on period photographs and original colour remnants from behind the light switch plates. This replacement scheme successfully gives an impression of the scale and layout of the original. A specialist reproduction as with other more recent Mackintosh recreations might restore greater subtlety which is evident in the extant originals.
Wall stencil design used at Candida Cottage and 5 The Drive. C. R. Mackintosh. c.1918.
Image: Hunterian GLAHA41695
Moveable furniture from the room has subsequently been dispersed, the sideboard was sold in Philadelphia in 2019 [ 5 ]. It was acquired by the Knockaloe Charitable Trust and is now on display at their Visitor Centre – sited close to where it was first made – as of July 2026.
As detailed above W.J. Bassett – Lowke’s Candida Cottage featured furniture and decor foreshowing that later made for 5 The Drive. Several items from the ‘Candida Cottage’ dining suite are now in the collection of Brighton Museum including the service trolley. Another service trolley attributed to Mackintosh and similar in design to the Brighton trolley was sold by British Furniture dealer Paul Reeves around 2015 ( see photo below ). Visual comparison of the Brighton trolley with that sold by Paul Reeves suggests a similar origin. Roger Bilcliffe’s Mackintosh Furniture 1979 Catalogue raisonné lists the ‘Jones’ trolley as ‘untraced’ [ 6 ] and it seems probable that the pictured trolley now apparently in a US private collection originated from 5 The Drive.
Sideboard for 5 The Drive. C. R. Mackintosh. 1919.
Image: Freeman’s Auctions Philadelphia
Service trolley ( possibly ) for 5 The Drive. C. R. Mackintosh. 1919.
Image by kind permission of: paulreeveslondon.com
At the time of our visit the property was being prepared for sale. The dining room had for many years seen service as a study and the owner expressed his great enjoyment in using the room. It was interesting to hear how evening light from the wall lanterns created a mirrorball sparkle effect which animated the space magically. The romance of such an elegant space for family dining made one hundred years ago is even now tangible. This and the many thoughtful considered features of this room, a little-seen late career tour de force from Mackintosh pay further tribute to his mastery of design.
Update September 2025
5 The Drive was marketed for sale again in 2024 having undergone a period of internal remodelling and decoration. It remains unsold at the time of this update. Sales photos indicate that the Mackintosh designed dining room remains as described here. The room is protected by virtue of its official Grade II listing. The listing entry can be viewed on the Historic England website.
An earlier version of this article appeared in the Journal of The Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society in Spring 2024.
The text was subsequently updated to include additional information as of September 2025 and again in July 2026.
References