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The Regeneration of Glasgow's Clydeside
From the trams and the Underground subway system, to the shipyards of Clydeside, Glasgow's transport system has a long, illustrious history. So it’s fitting that the new transport museum will be on banks of the regenerated River Clyde...
The Museum of Transport in the Kelvin Hall is the second most visited transport museum in the UK, second only to the National Railway Museum in York, with half a million visitors each year.
But in order to preserve Glasgow's great transport history, the museum has outgrown its current location. As part of the regeneration of the River Clyde, the Museum of Transport is moving to the riverside. Director of Fundraising for the project, Anthony McReavy, believes the new museum building will be even bigger and better.
"We have a collection of British transport, which was used before the war, and the oldest bike in the world," he says. "The museum currently has 300 objects but the new museum will hold 3,000."
Apart from holding more valuable exhibits, the new museum can protect them as well. "The Director of Culture and Art, Mark O’Neil, says, "The old museum is very successful, but it’s in a very unsuitable building. "The heating damages the exhibits. Also, it's not contributing to regeneration. But the banks of the Clyde are quite dead, so we need to bring it alive again. By having the museum by river, we would be repopulating the banks."
The new museum is designed by the internationally renowned Iraqi architect, Zaha Hadid, who won the Pritzker Prize of Architecture in 2004, considered the 'Nobel' prize of architecture.
"We're combining world-class building with world-class architecture. Our transport system has deep local roots. For example, in the 1950s, Glasgow was seen as the world leader in transport. People would come from Chicago in the USA, to see what we have done with our transport system. People in Glasgow wanted a spectacular building to showcase its transport history," says Mark.
There are plans for developing the area around the museum too. "We're not just concentrating on the inside," says Mark. "Outside, there will be events. For example, the annual Glasgow River Festival will also be moving to Clydeside.
"There'll be more shops, and to enable people to get to the river area, transport links will be improved."
The biggest challenge of building the museum and regenerating the area is considering the visitors. Mark says, "It has to work for the people, so that they will have a great experience when they visit. Planning and building the museum is complex, but we have to keep the museum visitors in mind. It’s about quality and ambition."
"It's a privilege to be overseeing a project that puts Glasgow on the map. It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to do something really special that will make a difference and strike a chord with the people."
The new Museum of Transport will open in 2010/11.
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Museum of Transport
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