Riverside's Top Ten Must See

Riverside Museum is Glasgow's award-winning transport and technology museum. Here are our top things to see and do.

Main Street

Cross over the cobbles in Main Street and you’ll be in the Glasgow of the 1890s to 1930. Take a wander into the shops and soak up the atmosphere created through genuine historic interiors.

Photograph showing the temporary Record Shop exhibition at Riverside Museum

Spinning Around: Glasgow's Remarkable Record Shops, 1980-1995

An immersive display celebrating the multitude of Glasgow’s record shops from about 1980 to 1995, paying tribute to their importance to the city’s internationally renowned music, creative and cultural scene.

South African Loco 3007

The largest thing you will see at the Riverside. Built here in Glasgow in 1945, it was exported to South Africa where it ran until 1987. Around it you can find stories of the men who built it as well as how the railways in South Africa were affected by the discriminatory Apartheid system.

Car Wall

In one sweeping look you can see 31 of Glasgow Museums’ most precious and well-loved cars, including Sir William Burrell's Rolls-Royce Phantom ll, an Isle of Arran postal van, Porsche 911, and a quirky BMW Isetta bubble-car. Scottish carmakers such as Albion, Arrol-Johnston and Argyll also feature.

Ship conveyor

Watch as a selection of ships sail past on the conveyor.

Photograph showing a selection of vintage dresses and a tram, both of which would have been used to go out dancing

Tram dancing

Go to the display to hear the stories of Glaswegians who used the city’s trams to visit their favourite dance. Some of them would be wearing dresses like the ones in the photograph here.

Graeme Obree

Graeme Obree is rightly regarded as one of Scotland’s greatest sporting heroes, having smashed the hour cycling record on a bicycle he designed and built himself in the 1990s. This display explores how he triumphed against the odds.

Photograph showing a vintage dress once worn by actress Audrey Hepburn, and a classic Mini

Audrey Hepburn dress and Mini

The Morris Mini became central to 1960s culture – a vehicle, like no other, that represents opportunity, style and change. This display reveals how the Mini abandoned the conventions of the day like many objects in that decade, including the ‘Chain mail’ dress by Paco Rabanne worn by Audrey Hepburn.

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Photograph showing a Ford Granada police motor from 1985

Granada Police Car

This Ford Granada was used by Strathclyde Police in the 1980s to enforce the rules of the road and pursue those that broke them. Capable of speeds up to 125mph, this car – whose distinctive markings made it known as the ‘Jam Butty’ – was a vital police resource on the streets of Glasgow and beyond.

Motorbike Wall

A display of 21 motorcycles representing over 100 years of motorbike design, covering commuter bikes, off-roaders, super bikes, tourers and speedway.

Dorothee Pullinger

This 1924 Galloway 10.9 coupe forms part of a multi-object display telling the story of pioneering engineer Dorothée Pullinger, described as ‘the only lady motor manufacturer in Scotland’. The display celebrates her achievements, including training and employing record numbers of female engineers.

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Going Green – The Drive for Energy Efficiency

The centrepiece of this display is a Tesla Model S P85+, believed to be the first Tesla acquired by a public museum in Scotland. The pioneering car, gifted to the city by a private collector is a stunning and technologically important car, which represents a new dawn in electric vehicle development.

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Treasured shoe added to Athenia display on 80th anniversary of the sinking

Eighty years ago the SS Athenia was outbound from Glasgow to Montreal with over 1,000 passengers on board. On the day World War 2 was declared in 1939 it was attacked and sunk, becoming the first maritime casualty of the war. A shoe from the last know British survivor has been added to this display.