What's happening at the People's Palace?

Glasgow Life is working with Glasgow City Council, The National Lottery Heritage Fund, and other partners on an ambitious plan to restore and reimagine the much-loved People’s Palace and Winter Gardens.

The people of Glasgow will play a key role in designing a dynamic, community-led, greener, more sustainable People’s Palace and Winter Gardens.

This transformational project will create a space that celebrates Glasgow today, shares the city’s incredible stories, and connects the building to its stunning setting in Glasgow Green.

Bringing back a world-class, local museum and glasshouse will safeguard the future of this significant cultural and historical asset. Working with the local community will create a positive impact on health and wellbeing, while repositioning the East End of Glasgow on the tourist map.

Now the building has closed, the restoration of the People’s Palace and Winter Gardens as a vibrant museum and thriving community space can progress.

Between now and the end of summer 2025, a specialist project team will move forward the successful community-centred approach credited with achieving great things at The Burrell Collection.

By joining forces with local people and using their views to shape all aspects of the refurbishment, the team will transform the space and displays to make the building more accessible for all. Together they will start to develop the main stories that will feature in the ‘new’ People’s Palace, ensuring more people’s heritage is on display when it opens.

There are just over 1,000 objects in the People’s Palace. Work will start on the careful transfer of the Collection, which includes social history, costumes, paintings, prints and drawings to stores at Kelvin Hall and Glasgow Museums Resource Centre. These venues are publicly accessible, allowing the collection to be enjoyed while the building is closed.

Teams will document, photograph, and carry out any conservation needed on the objects, getting them ready to be displayed once the transformation is complete.

The fabric of the building will also be refurbished. Investigative work will provide more information on the condition of the building and allow contractors to be selected.

The expected cost of the People’s Palace and Winter Gardens project is £35.9 million. Glasgow City Council has already committed £2.9 million to the project. A further £11m contribution will come from Glasgow City Council.

The National Lottery Heritage Fund has provided development funding of £850,000 that paves the way to a wider £7.5million award.

Glasgow Life continues to work with other public and private sector funders to secure the remaining investment required. The full costs will be known when a comprehensive design and procurement exercise is completed, and a contractor appointed.

Local people will play a key role in shaping every aspect of designing a dynamic, community-led, greener, and more sustainable People’s Palace and Winter Gardens.

Over the coming months and years there will be many ways to get involved. Keep an eye on the People’s Palace website and social media for more information.

As shown many times before, the people of Glasgow and beyond are extremely generous. They played a vital role in supporting the refurbishments of both The Burrell Collection and Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, and the development of the Riverside Museum.

The support of individuals, companies, trusts and foundations will be key to the success of this project. Details of a public fundraising campaign will also be shared on the People’s Palace website and social media soon.

Work is underway transforming this much-loved venue into a dynamic, community-led, greener, more sustainable People’s Palace and Winter Gardens.

The precise timescales will be known when comprehensive investigative work on the condition of the building and design briefs are completed.

Opened in 1898, the People’s Palace and Winter Gardens was Glasgow’s first purpose-built museum. It was built to inspire, entertain, and educate. These original ambitions remain at the heart of the project to restore this much-loved cultural and historical asset.

The final look and content have still to decided. Local people’s insights and opinions will shape the final design, both physically and in content. Early consultation suggests this could include better wayfinding, new accessible toilets, and spaces that support wellbeing such as a dedicated quiet space.

The new museum will showcase innovative digital technology, have open, welcoming, accessible spaces, that celebrate the people of Glasgow and tell the city’s stories.

The new glasshouse will enhance the museum offer, combined with a café and retail space, the Winter Gardens will be a flexible events space for local people and visitors. It will also better connect the museum and visitors with nature and the surrounding park.

Together the revitalised People’s Palace and Winter Gardens will become a world-class, sustainable visitor attraction in the East End of Glasgow, bringing a wealth of social and economic benefits to local people and beyond. It will be a place by people, for people, with people.

Glasgow Museums and Collections is the most visited museum service in the UK outside London, welcoming almost four million people each year.

With venues across the city, which are free to visit and open all year round, there are plenty of places to enjoy the 5 million items that make up the city’s world-class civic collections, encompassing museum objects, archives, and special collections.

From Glasgow’s most popular visitor attractions, Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum and Riverside, to The Burrell Collection; the 2023 Art Fund Museum of the Year, and Scotland’s most visited modern art gallery, GoMA and fully accessible stores at Glasgow Museums Resource Centre and the Kelvin Hall, there are plenty of places people can come and appreciate celebrated fine and contemporary art, natural history, transport and technology, Scottish history and more will we transform the People’s Palace.

The Great British Public Toilet Map aims to be a complete, up-to-date, sustainable source of toilet locations. It's the UK's largest database of publicly accessible toilets. The project aims to map all publicly accessible toilets, that is toilets the public can access without needing to be a customer.

You can access it here https://www.toiletmap.org.uk/

Watch our videos which offer access to our collections.