The Riverside Museum

Due to open in Spring 2011, replacing Glasgow?s Museum of Transport (now closed), which was Scotland's second-most popular free attraction. The new Transport Museum will be designed by Zaha Hadid Architects

Few cities have had such a profound impact upon transport and technology as Glasgow. The landmark Riverside Museum Project will give the city a new purpose-built venue in which to tell that story.

The iconic transport museum is being built on the banks of the River Clyde, at the heart of the Glasgow Harbour development. Together with the Clyde Maritime Trust and The Tall Ship, the new museum will reinforce Glasgow's global reputation as a tourism hotspot.

Riverside Museum Appeal

The Transport Museum is one of those places you have just got to visit when you are in the West End of Glasgow. Here you will find classic cars, modern cars, sports cars, buses, trams, steam trains, chain driven underground trains, diesel trains, old bicycles, new bicycles, motorbikes, model boats, trucks, gypsy caravans, horse drawn carriages, steam driven cars, and steam engines. Phew! - and if that's not enough to keep you occupied you can visit the 'simulated' street and underground station from Glasgow's past or spend some money in the shop and cafe.

The Transport Museum is located in the Kelvin Hall which many Glasgwegians still think of as the home of the Christmas Carnival and Circus. Just thinking about it I can just about smell the elephants which used to be tied up in one corner of the Carnival Hall, hear the racket of the children on the rides and see the lights of the big wheel. Anyway enough of the reminiscence - back to the Transport Museum.

The Transport Museum holds the biggest collection of Clyde ship models in the world - which to be honest are a bit hard to find when you are in the museum - they are tucked away upstairs on the opposite side from the Cafe. Once you find it you should have a look at the old photographs and artifacts related to the art of building big ships on the Clyde. They are displayed along the right hand wall as you come in.

This is one a great place to take the kids (bairns, weans, children, youngsters, bambinos, enfants, kinder or whatever you call them) - there is lots for them to do and it's great for the bigger kids too - as you know most men like shiny old cars.

Update:

New permanent displays have been added: Travel Over 100 Years Ago, Car Crime, and Transport Disasters. The unique Ship Models are located in the Clyde Room (opened by Prince Charles). Guided tours of the museum are available with enthusiastic Friends of Glasgow Museums volunteers. The Museum has an exhibit reproduced on a British postage stamp - the No.3 Coronation tram on display was shown on a 1990 stamp, en route for the Empire Exhibition, Scotland 1938 at Bellahouston Park. Stanley K Hunter
--Stanley K Hunter ( StanleyKHunter at compuserve dot com ) from Scotland on 10.11.2000; 0:00:00 Uhr

great site brought back some memories thank you dmc
--duncan mclean ( dmc31958 at aol dot com ) from usa on 27.5.2000; 0:00:00 Uhr