Description
The People's Palace is Glasgow's dedicated social history museum, located in the historic Glasgow Green. It is easily one of the best things to do with kids in East Glasgow, offering a look at how Glaswegians lived, worked, and played in years gone by.
This museum is a social history hub where local stories come to life through photographs, film, and quirky everyday objects. If you are looking for the best place for a day out with family and kids that offers an educational day out with plenty of green space to run around, this is it.
The museum is designed to be relatable, showing everything from vintage toys to old-fashioned kitchen setups that kids find fascinating. If you are looking for Best place for day out with kids and families then this is the perfect destination offering fun, adventure, and unforgettable memories for everyone.
Features
- Free
- Host birthday parties: Yes
Features
What makes the People's Palace unique?
- The venue was specifically opened in 1898 to provide a cultural centre for the people of the East End of Glasgow. Unlike traditional museums that focus on ancient relics or international fine art, this space is completely dedicated to the local social history, capturing the genuine spirit, political struggles, and domestic lives of everyday people.
- Social History: Displays focus on real household items, clothing, and childhood toys from the 19th and 200s.
- Family Orientation: Features interactive exhibits and nostalgia-inducing galleries that bridge the generation gap between grandparents and children.
- Scenic Setting: Positioned right inside a vast public park, allowing families to combine a museum visit with outdoor play, walks, and picnics.
Top 5 Museum Highlights
- The Single End Exhibit: This realistic reconstruction shows a typical one-room tenement flat where large families lived tightly packed together during the height of Glasgow's industrial era. Children can see exactly how everyday tasks were done without modern electricity or indoor plumbing, offering a brilliant, hands-on history lesson that contrasts sharply with modern home comforts.
- Billy Connolly’s Famous Banana Boots: A true icon of Scottish popular culture, these custom-made, banana-shaped stage boots were worn by the famous Glasgow comedian during his 1970s tours. Kids always get a laugh out of the bright, oversized footwear, while parents appreciate the nod to local comedic history.
- The Steamie Display: This section recreates the atmosphere of the traditional public washhouses where local women did the family laundry and shared community gossip. It features authentic wash tubs, scrubbing boards, and heavy rollers, helping young visitors understand the physical effort involved in daily life before washing machines existed.
- Historical Childhood Toys: A captivating collection of vintage toys, games, and prams that children from past eras played with on the streets of Glasgow. It sparks fantastic conversations between kids and adults about how playtime has evolved from simple physical toys to digital screens.
- The Doulton Fountain: Located directly outside the entrance, this magnificent structure is the largest matching terracotta fountain in the world. Originally built for the International Exhibition of 1888, it stands five storeys high and features detailed statues that children love to inspect closely from the pathway.
Detailed Inventory & Collections
- The People's Palace houses an incredible archive of specific, everyday historical objects and artworks that document the authentic cultural evolution of working-class Glaswegian life.
- The Duke Street Prison Bell: The original, heavy iron bell that historically tolled inside the prison walls whenever an execution sentence was completed.
- Private Riley's Shaving Mirror: A deeply moving World War One artifact featuring a real steel shaving mirror and drill book that physically stopped a German bullet meant for a local soldier.
- Ken Currie's History Paintings: A striking series of large-scale oil canvases created in 1987 on the top floor, specifically commemorating the historic massacre of the Calton Weavers.
- The 1940s Bakelite Radio: A perfectly preserved early domestic radio unit that sits within the housing gallery, showing families what pre-television entertainment looked like.
- An Original Anderson Air Raid Shelter: A full-sized, corrugated steel domestic bomb shelter display that lets kids step inside to see how families protected themselves during the Blitz.
- The Buttercup Dairy Company Tiles: A beautiful collection of authentic, decorative glazed wall tiles rescued from a traditional 20th-century high street milk and butter shop.
- A Pair of Ceramic 'Wally Dugs': Traditional, highly decorative white pottery spaniel dogs that sat on almost every Glaswegian tenement fireplace mantelpiece during the Victorian era.
- The Barrowlands Neon Sign Replica: A glowing, bright neon installation hanging above the social galleries that celebrates the city's historic dancehall and musical heritage.
Beyond the Main Attraction
- While the museum building itself undergoes restoration, the immediate surrounding area of Glasgow Green offers brilliant outdoor spaces and historic monuments for families to explore. The building is attached to the Winter Gardens, a spectacular Victorian glasshouse structure that historically housed tropical plants and exotic flora, providing a peaceful, warm indoor escape.
- Please Note: Both the People's Palace and the Winter Gardens are currently closed to the public to undergo an extensive, multimillion-pound refurbishment project designed to protect the structural integrity of the historic glasshouse and modernise the museum exhibits for future generations.
- The Nelson Monument: A towering, 144-foot stone obelisk located just southwest of the museum entrance, built in 1806 as Britain's first civic monument to Admiral Nelson.
- Templeton on the Green: Located directly opposite the park boundary, this visually breathtaking former carpet factory features a bright, patterned facade inspired by the Doge's Palace in Venice.
- Glasgow Green Football Centre: A fantastic modern sports facility located further into the park grounds, offering multiple all-weather pitches where kids can play.
- The River Clyde Walkway: A beautifully paved, traffic-free path running right along the edge of the parkland, perfect for a family bike ride or a peaceful stroll.
New for 2026
- The venue is currently executing a massive, £35.9 million transformational redevelopment project backed by the National Lottery Heritage Fund to completely modernize the visitor experience.
- The Main Building Strip-Out: Throughout 2026, specialized heritage contractors are actively executing investigative structural fabric surveys and removing non-structural partitions inside the main halls.
- Horticultural Preservation: Expert gardening teams have successfully taken live cuttings of rare plants from the Winter Gardens glasshouse to safely preserve their genetic heritage before structural reglazing starts.
- Collection Decant Operations: More than 10,000 historic museum objects have been safely transferred into publicly accessible, climate-controlled Glasgow Museum storage facilities for protection during the heavy construction phase.
- The 2026 Youth Panel: A brand-new community consultation scheme has launched this season, actively bringing together local young people aged 18 to 26 to directly co-design the future layout and digital interactive displays.
Events: For more upcoming events please visit here.
1.25 miles
