Watch: Last chance to see People’s Palace Glasgow exhibits before museum closes for major redesign

Glasgow’s East End museum that showcases civilian life in the city and emphasises its working class roots, is closing on 14 April this year until 2027 to allow a major refurbishment to take place and locals are now being encouraged to visit while there is still access to many of the exhibits.

The People’s Palace and Winter Gardens recently received funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund which will be used to redesign and update the buildings, future-proofing them as important and educational institutions. 

The team behind the renovation is set to work directly with members of the community to create blueprints, ensuring the final product resembles the museum’s nature of being for ‘the people’ and provides exhibits that are genuinely of interest to inhabitants.

The idea of “palaces for the people” drew on the writings of John Ruskin, William Morris and Annie Besant. At the time, the East End 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.

Upon its opening, Rosebery from the House of Lords 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”.

Here are some highlights currently on display at the People’s Palace that you can see before the building closes:

Sir Billy Connolly’s banana boots

One of the most popular exhibits the museum features. Designed and constructed by local pop artist Edmund Smith in 1975 after the famous comedian ordered a pair of size 9 ‘bananas’ for a show. Smith remarked that the second boot would not be identical to the first because “bananas never are”. 

Glasgow Fair, painting by John Knox

This ambitious painting is full of life, depicting the annual fair at Glasgow Green. It features over 1,000 figurines individually drawn out as well as a number of notable local landmarks. The artwork by the Paisley-born artist has been on display here since 2024. 

Rikki Fulton’s BAFTA Lifetime Achievement Award 1993

The Glasgow-born actor and comedian was best known for his long-running BBC sketch show Scotch and Wry and was an essential part of the media’s Hogmanay ritual. His trophy is a popular part of the museum as visitors reminisce his collective familiarity. 

Glasgow 1955 Photographic Survey

Featuring over 500 images, the exhibit has proved treasured because it offers a fascinating glimpse into a different era. Partick Camera Club made an effort of capturing scenes of people and places in daily Glaswegian life.

Suffragette Maggie Moffat’s Holloway prison badge 

A small silver pin badge often referred to as the ‘Holloway Brooch’ which had been presented to women who had been imprisoned for suffrage activity. This particular badge belonged to Maggie Moffat, a Glasgow actor, after she was arrested in London in 1907.