The People's Palace and Winter Gardens in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popu ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...

, is a

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make th ...

and glasshouse situated in

Glasgow Green Glasgow Green is a park in the east end of Glasgow, Scotland, on the north bank of the River Clyde. Established in the 15th century, it is the oldest park in the city. It connects to the south via the St Andrew's Suspension Bridge. History I ...

, and was opened on 22 January 1898 by The 5th Earl of Rosebery.

Early history

The idea of "palaces for the people" drew on the writings of

John Ruskin John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English writer, philosopher, art critic and polymath of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and pol ...

William Morris William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was a British textile designer, poet, artist, novelist, architectural conservationist, printer, translator and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement. He w ...

and

Annie Besant Annie Besant ( Wood; 1 October 1847 – 20 September 1933) was a British socialist, theosophist, freemason, women's rights activist, educationist, writer, orator, political party member and philanthropist. Regarded as a champion of human ...

and the Glasgow People's Palace took inspiration from its counterpart on Mile End Road in the East End of

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. Anderson, Freddie (1983), ''The Last of the People's Palaces'', in Hearn, Sheila G. (ed.), ''

Cencrastus ''Cencrastus'' was a magazine devoted to Scottish and international literature, arts and affairs, founded after the Referendum of 1979 by students, mainly of Scottish literature at Edinburgh University, and with support from Cairns Craig, then a ...

'' No. 14, Autumn 1983, pp. 17 - 19, At the time, the

East End The East End of London, often referred to within the London area simply as the East End, is the historic core of wider East London, east of the Roman and medieval walls of the City of London and north of the River Thames. It does not have uni ...

of Glasgow was one of the most unhealthy and overcrowded parts of the city, and the People's Palace was intended to provide a cultural centre for the people. It was designed by the City Engineer, Alexander B. McDonald, and decorated with sculptures representing Art, Science, Shipbuilding, Industry and Progress by William Kellock Brown. At the opening ceremony, Lord Rosebery described it as: "A palace of pleasure and imagination around which the people may place their affections and which may give them a home on which their memory may rest". He declared the building "Open to the people for ever and ever".

Features

Originally, the ground floor of the building provided reading and recreation rooms, with a museum on the first floor, and a picture gallery on the top floor. Since the 1940s, it has been the museum of

social history Social history, often called the new social history, is a field of history that looks at the lived experience of the past. In its "golden age" it was a major growth field in the 1960s and 1970s among scholars, and still is well represented in his ...

for the city of Glasgow, and tells the story of the people and the city from 1750 to the present day. The collections and displays reflect the changing face of the city and the different experiences of Glaswegians at home, work and leisure. Current displays (as of March 2009) include glimpses of typical Glasgow history such as life in a "single end" (a one-room tenement home), going to "The Steamie" (the communal laundry), nights out at "The Dancing" in the famous

Barrowland Ballroom The Barrowland Ballroom (also known as Barrowlands) is a dance hall and music venue in Glasgow, Scotland. History The original building opened in 1934 in a mercantile area east of Glasgow's city centre, built by Maggie McIver, the "Barras Que ...

and trips "Doon The Watter" (down the

Firth of Clyde The Firth of Clyde is the mouth of the River Clyde. It is located on the west coast of Scotland and constitutes the deepest coastal waters in the British Isles (it is 164 metres deep at its deepest). The firth is sheltered from the Atlantic ...

) on steamers such as the Waverley. The palace is also home to renowned Scottish Socialist John MacLean's campaign desk, which can be found on the first floor.

Closure

In the 1990s, the building was closed for almost two years to allow restoration work to be carried out, with the re-opening being timed to coincide with the 100-year anniversary of its first opening in 1898; this is recorded on a plaque mounted just inside the main entrance. Renovations extended to include the Winter Gardens to the rear of the building, where the glasshouse was extensively restored and reglazed, and the gardens tidied. In January 2019 both the People's Palace and Winter Gardens closed again, with rare plants moved to alternative homes after the site was ruled structurally unsafe. However images of the derelict interior led to criticism of

Glasgow City Council Glasgow City Council is the local government authority for the City of Glasgow, Scotland. It was created in 1996 under the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994, largely with the boundaries of the post-1975 City of Glasgow district of th ...

from Glasgow MP,

Paul Sweeney Paul John Sweeney FIES ( gd, Pòl Eòin Mac Suibhne; born 16 January 1989) is a Scottish politician. A member of the Scottish Labour and Co-operative Party, he currently serves as Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Glasgow region ...

who described it in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ( ...

'' as an "appalling act of civic vandalism". The People's Palace section reopened in June 2019 after a £350,000 refurbishment which saw the relocation of the fire exits away from the Winter Gardens. The venue then suffered an extensive closure during the pandemic from March 2020 before reopening two days a week from June 2021. The Winter Gardens remained closed throughout as the sealant used to attach the glass to the glasshouse frame was considered to be at 'end of life' after its 1998 refurbishment. The SNP-led Glasgow City Council, and its culture and sports subsidiary Glasgow Life, which is chaired by the council's deputy leader, did not have sufficient funds to afford the renovations, estimated between £5–7.5M, with 81 of its 191 venues still remaining closed in November 2021. Glasgow Life's troubles were exacerbated by lost revenue during the

Covid-19 pandemic in Scotland The COVID-19 pandemic in Scotland is part of the COVID-19 pandemic of coronavirus disease-2019, caused by the virus SARS-CoV-2. The first case of COVID-19 was confirmed in Scotland on 1 March 2020. Community transmission was first reported on ...

led to concerns the venue, along with others, would never reopen, which in turn sparked protests. As of January 2022 there was no published plan or timetable for the Winter Gardens to reopen.

Restoration

As part of the restoration the artist

Ken Currie Ken Currie (born 1960 in North Shields, Northumberland, England) is a Scottish artist and a graduate of Glasgow School of Art (1978–1983). Ken grew up in industrial Glasgow. This has had a significant influence on his early works. In the 198 ...

was commissioned to create a series of paintings for the ceiling dome of the museum. The eight panels mark the 200th anniversary of the Calton weavers Massacre of 1787 and depict the history of Glasgow's workers from that point to the present day. In 2005 was extensively refurbished and moved to its present position in front of the museum. At 46 feet high and 70 feet across at its base, it is the largest

terracotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terra ...

fountain in the world. It was originally gifted to the city in 1888 after the

International Exhibition of Science, Art and Industry The International Exhibition of Science, Art and Industry was the first of 4 international exhibitions held in Glasgow, Scotland during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It took place at Kelvingrove Park between May and November 1888. The ...

by Sir Henry Doulton to commemorate

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previ ...

’s Golden Jubilee, and is decorated with a figure of the Queen and groups from Canada, Australia, India and South Africa representing Britain's Empire.

The People's Palace cat

Plaque dedicated to Smudge outside the People's Palace

During the 1980s, a cat called Smudge gained local fame when she became a member of the General, Municipal, Boilermakers and Allied Trade Union, after

NALGO The National and Local Government Officers' Association was a British trade union representing mostly local government "white collar" workers. It was formed in 1905 as the National Association of Local Government Officers, and changed its full ...

refused her admission as a blue collar worker.

References

External links

People's Palace website

People's Palace and Winter Gardens- Clyde Waterfront Heritage
{{authority control Government buildings completed in 1898 Category A listed buildings in Glasgow Museums in Glasgow History museums in Scotland Gardens in Glasgow Greenhouses in the United Kingdom City museums in the United Kingdom Glasgow Green Sandstone buildings