People's Palace & Winter Gardens

The exhibits are extremely limited. In short, filled with old tat which could easily be picked up nearby at the local barrows. I was hoping to see a bit of nostalgia in the form of old Glasgow newspapers, old chocolate bars, old coins and items from the pantry that would bring back memories. A box of tampax on display was certainly not what I expected from a family exhibit and hardly nostalgic.

Glasgow is well known for it's old music halls and theatres...The Panopticon/Britannia Music Hall, Theatre Royal, Alhambra, Metropole and yet all these well known, wonderful venues are not mentioned. There is however, excellent footage of Barrowland dancing but it only lasts two minutes and then replaced with a boring dancing duo. Come to think of it, where are all the wonderful black and white films on typical Glasgow life which show tenement life in general. There are huge amounts of film available on this subject yet we seldom have the chance to see any of it.

I was most surprised that there were no exhibits from the Glasgow Empire Exhibition and the Internation Exhibition. There is a wealth of memorabilia from these significant events available which could have easily been displayed.

The main focus of the People's Palace seems to (unfairly) highlight the depth of poverty and human degradation in Glasgow, displaying Glasgow as a poverty struck cesspit and the lowest form of life. For the avoidance of doubt, there was another less impoverished side of life in Glasgow at this time.

There is a painting of Jimmy Reid, the Clydeside trade union activist taking precedence on the wall. Whilst there is little doubt he was an inspiring orator, Reid together with Billy Connolly embarrassingly supersede Rennie Mackintosh and Sir William Burrell.
Woe betide us if ''The city of culture' thinks Billy Connolly is our claim to fame!

The wonderful architecture and magnificent buildings of Glasgow are lost on this museum. In addition, the superb old Glasgow shops of that time like Pettigrew and Stephens, Copeland and Lye, Daly's, Lewis's and Hendersons are given no mention and our marvelous Art Deco cinemas have been sadly forgotten.

Overall, it is an outrageous abuse of such a lovely building and does not truly reflect the warmth and kindness of the Glasgow people or in any way show the beauty of the city.

On a practical note, the ladies toilets had no toilet rolls and the interactive exhibit telephones were absolutely filthy and broken. The cake from the cafe was hard and tasteless.

Dreary, depressing and does not really portray the reality of true Glasgow nostalgia. The exhibits were limited and the bare grocery shop and tennement house could be greatly improved