Just try to forget the word museum, this is boys toys basically with a few prams thrown in, we’ll forget them.
If you’re in Glasgow and looking for something to do on a rainy day and let’s face it, they do rather specialise in rainy days, you could do a lot worse than catching the bus down to the banks of the Clyde and take a look round this fascinating collection of locomotives, cars, motorbikes, cycles, lorries and, best of all trams, lots of trams. You can (almost) go in them and they do have a sort of nostalgic pull although most of us are too young to remember them first time around, Blackpool excepted.
The only thing missing, for my money, was buses, I would have liked to have seen some more but, not to worry this is a slice of Glasgow’s history and captivating it is too. The museum is arranged so that you walk round it in a set pattern. It’s a bit like going to IKEA but you’re not bored after five minutes. In fact I wasn’t bored after a couple of hours, I could have gone round again but of course one is not allowed too much fun as there are, it was pointed out to me, numerous shopping opportunities in this great city.
Glasgow’s maritime history is not ignored and there are models galore of some of the many boats and ships that kept the workforce in gainful employment before, sadly, shipbuilding in Britain died out. There is just one shipyard on the Clyde these days.
It’s one long trip into childhood and well worth a visit as is Scotland generally, I have to say. Glasgow, and Scotland’s other great metropolis, Edinburgh may seem a bit of a pull from Lincolnshire for a weekend break but the effort is amply rewarded and, contrary to the impression you may have gained from a certain politician who wants away from the union, there is a very genuine and warm welcome for us English to be had north of the border.
Riverside Museum
100 Pointhouse Place
Glasgow
G3 8RS
0141 287 2720
museums@glasgowlife.org.uk
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