In 1991 two previously undocumented façade designs by Charles Rennie Mackintosh for a shop and office block and a warehouse block, both in an arcaded street, were auctioned (Figs 1 and 2). These drawings have been related to Patrick Geddes’ town-planning work in India after 1914, yet the background of the designs has remained unexamined. The available evidence presented in this essay allows one to argue that Mackintosh conceived both blocks for the city of Lucknow. They were ideal designs which responded to Geddes’ criticism of Lucknow’s Victoria Street. This street symbolized a type of destructive urban planning whose rectification demanded exemplary architectural and urban design efforts. Required was ‘reconstruction towards Arts and Crafts’ which meant for Geddes and his circle of friends to recreate the city as a, indeed the most, human form of life.