Glasgow's Riverside Museum

I’ve always been annoyed by the praise this building attracts. For those unfamiliar, this is the second home of Glasgow’s transport museum, after leaving a much loved previous location when it was repurposed for the Commonwealth Games.

There is no question in my mind that this new building is impressive as an artistic architectural endeavour, but in performing its intended function as a museum it is pretty awful. The previous location was large and spacious, allowing you to get up close and examine the extensive collection of exhibits. The new location, many of the cars are now stacked vertically on an artsy wall display 4-5 stories tall. This means that for a large chunk of the collection of cars in the transport museum, all you can really see is the underside of the cars. As a kid in the old one, pressing one’s face up to the windows to peer inside was half the damn fun, this is entirely impossible in the new museum thanks to this design.

The use of space is generally questionable throughout, the number of exhibits on display at any one time significantly less. The maritime model collection has been reduced from a huge room to a bizarre conveyor belt thing that can only display a handful of the hundreds of models the old one could. Much of the displays seem compromised by a desire not to interfere with the architect’s vision for the space. The once impressive display of Glasgow’s long gone public trams is hugely reduced also.

The weird decisions even extend to the bathrooms, where the stalls have a pull door when closed, but no handle to pull them open (at least at the time of my last visit a year ago). This forced me to stab my fingers into the tiny gap between door and wall to try and pry the thing open.

I find visiting this new museum a saddening experience anytime I visit Glasgow. This museum looks great in photos and I can see how it’s striking design probably convinced the city to back it. It’s just a shame it is such a clear regression in its primary function as a museum compared to its predecessor. The old location was also directly across the road from The Kelvingrove Museum, arguably one of the finest museums in the U.K. This allowed you to explore both on foot easily back in the day, a great day out.

Perhaps most annoyingly, Glasgow City Council appears to consider this project an enormous success. It always seemed the city was much more interested in getting a shiny architectural curiosity on the banks of the Clyde than it was interested in making a great museum. In 50 years I imagine few will remember the Common Wealth Games that largely triggered this move, they will still be stuck with a much inferior museum.