The Hidden Glasgow Forums

HG trip before it shuts?

From http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/hi/news/5050479.html

Scotland's noisiest museum to close for £10m revamp

SCOTLAND'S noisiest museum is to fall silent for almost two years as it closes for a £10million revamp. Work is under way to expand Summerlee Heritage Park in Coatbridge, where the main exhibition hall displays working industrial machinery - giving the attraction its 'noisy' tag. The revamp will include the installation of new exhibitions and displays and extending the country's only working electric tram system. The popular 22-acre park and museum is to be developed into a national visitor attraction celebrating Scotland's industrial heritage. The multi-million pound makeover will centre on the refurbishment of the main exhibition hall. Visitor access is also being improved and there are plans for a new cafe, shop and toilets. An education and lifelong learning suite is being created as well as conservation workshops. The makeover will mean the closure of the entire park for just under two years from September.

North Lanarkshire Council said it was working to ensure all 41 staff would be re-deployed to other museums for the duration of the closure.
Summerlee is Scotland's leading museum of industrial and social history and attracts around 70,000 visitors per year. The electric trams, which have been restored by volunteers, transport visitors to a 19th century row of miners cottages where they can don hard hats and travel underground to experience a drift mine. Funding for the massive renovation project has come from the Heritage Lottery Fund, North Lanarkshire Council and private funders. Councillor Jim Logue, convener of the local authority's community services committee, said: "Summerlee has always been a popular visitor attraction and the improvements we will see as a result of this project will confirm its position as one of the most significant industrial heritage sites in Scotland. "Our anticipated reopening date of April 2008 will see a significantly improved facility." SCOTLAND'S noisiest museum is to fall silent for almost two years as it closes for a £10million revamp.
Work is under way to expand Summerlee Heritage Park in Coatbridge, where the main exhibition hall displays working industrial machinery - giving the attraction its 'noisy' tag. The revamp will include the installation of new exhibitions and displays and extending the country's only working electric tram system. The popular 22-acre park and museum is to be developed into a national visitor attraction celebrating Scotland's industrial heritage. The multi-million pound makeover will centre on the refurbishment of the main exhibition hall. Visitor access is also being improved and there are plans for a new cafe, shop and toilets. An education and lifelong learning suite is being created as well as conservation workshops. The makeover will mean the closure of the entire park for just under two years from September. The main exhibition hall will close from this Friday to allow exhibits and collections to be transferred off-site.

Summerlee is a fantastic place, kids just love it. It will be sorely missed during the closure.

John

One alarming issue arising from this plan is that the preserved class 311 "Blue Train" is unlikely to be retained in it's full 3 coach form. Stories are doing the rounds that (at least) one of the three coaches will be sold or at worst scrapped.

It's a shame that the Glasgow Transport Museum doesn't want an icon of Glasgow transport history. just what are they going to put in the new site ?
(I hope they find another home for that protest caravan )

Has a class 303 unit been preserved in original form ?

glasgowken wrote:
Has a class 303 unit been preserved in original form ?

There's apparently one still intact at a secure location down south that's being used by the police for train-ing purposes. <groan>

Glaasgowken wrote:Has a class 303 unit been preserved in original form ?

There is one at Bo'ness which is in running order (it can be operated push pull with a diesel) and the plan is to get it back to the original blue

I'm told by someone in the know that Summerlee will be fantastic when it re-opens. I know that any time I've been it's been a bit of a jumble, with stuff placed willy-nilly.

Careful, that might mean everything will be brought up to 2006 Health & Safety standards, with everything behind safety screens, no moving parts, nothing that makes a noise lest it harm the eardrums and no devices operating that mght emit noxious fumes and gases.

A non-engineer will probably also be employed to clean up the dirty exhibits to smarten the place up, and make it more attractive to lots of tourists and visitors, rather than the small number of enthusiasts.

I used to work with one of the volunteers years ago, a true steam enthusiast - his photo features on one of the displays, if you spot the chap pictured with lots of hair and a real old wirey beard, that's him.

I for one hope they don't clean and organise the place as part of the revamp, and kill the magic.

Didn't they do something like that with the People's Palace ?
I went for the first time in about 15 years the other week, and i'm certain there are less exhibits now. (May just be my memory )

I like cluttered, and old time museums. I'm hoping Kelvingrove won't have lost it's atmosphere when that re-opens (or have a lot of noisy, flashing, crap).

I 'm afraid memories of the People's Palace 'before and after' actually prompted the thought, though the earlier change of curator and council policies might have had an earlier hand in that particular case.

Can you elaborate on the changes to the PP, Apollo ?
It's been so long I only have vague memories. I just remember a lot more stuff to see.

It's hard to quantify. Partly because it was closed for a couple years while they did the changes, and because I was unable to get time for trips there prior to it because of health problems at home.

Apart from the shop, the downstairs area tends to be deserted, although there are specialist displays put on there, but although they cover interesting subject, I always find them rather sparse.

They put in quite a few slide shows and presentations, but these have largely disappeared, presumably as they required maintenace. The remainder are intermittent, sometimes working, sometimes not. They have a nice show across 3 screens, covering Glasgow past with old films and pics, unfortunately no-one thought to arrange it in a area that can be darkened, so you can't really see it, and the 3 projectors are no longer aligned.

The displays and contents are good, but there's a lack of atmosphere, I can't put my finger on it, maybe it's bad lighting or to many bare or open spaces. It's just a little clinical. I always feel it just needs a little someting t make it 'interesting'.

Doesn't keep me away though

Yep, "clinical" is the word I was grasping for, far too many bare areas. GCC Museums have a lot of great stuff in storage, put a few more cabnets in there and get it seen.

glasgowken wrote:Yep, "clinical" is the word I was grasping for, far too many bare areas. GCC Museums have a lot of great stuff in storage, put a few more cabnets in there and get it seen.

Wait for the AK47 that will be on display at Kelvingrove come the opening day

Fossil

Modern Fossil wrote:

glasgowken wrote:Yep, "clinical" is the word I was grasping for, far too many bare areas. GCC Museums have a lot of great stuff in storage, put a few more cabnets in there and get it seen.

Wait for the AK47 that will be on display at Kelvingrove come the opening day

Fossil

Errrmm........ ....Why will they have an AK47 ?