Glasgow

was the centre of the early modern city, as it expanded south from its medieval core towards the Clyde. Only the clocktower survives of the former city chambers, demolished in 1921.

Early police forces had a variety of roles that were later separated as firefighting, event security, night-watch and sanitary regulation (which often meant extorting bribes from the sex trade). Glasgow had the world's first police force from 1779, but it lacked state backing and folded. The first regular force was from 1800, and since then has grappled with criminals' ingenuity, but fortunately more often their gob-smacking stupidity. This small but well-stocked museum takes you through the history.

"Sharmanka" is Russian for "barrel-organ" and it's a kinetic gallery. It has dingbat machines created by Eduard Bersudsky, described somewhere between Heath Robinson and Jean Tinguely.

An alternative art gallery and installation space.

A gallery set up in 1983 by former students of Glasgow School of Art as a hub for the local art community and to provide exhibition space.

A Victorian Saint Pancras Station-style anomaly in an otherwise grey square. It's the nearest Subway to Central, though you'd only use it for outlying parts. The interior is modern.

Church completed in 1756 in classical style. This closed in 1993 and became a centre for traditional Scottish music, song and dance. It still promotes those but the church itself is seldom used as a venue.

is the extensive green space north bank of the Clyde. It was created in 1450 as separate plots of soggy grazing land, which were combined and drained. It became an area for bleaching and drying, mass protests and inflammatory speeches, and recreation and events. It's always open, with multiple access points, but from city centre a good approach is from the foot of High St through the Maclennan Arch. Follow the main path southeast to reach Nelson's Memorial, an obelisk commemorating his victory at Trafalgar. Central is the People's Palace, see below. North side of that is the elaborate terracotta Doulton Fountain, with Queen Victoria teetering atop it. At the park's east boundary, the Templeton Carpet Factory is now a business centre. St Andrew's suspension bridge gives access to the south river bank. See Clyde section below for the Tidal Weir.

This is a great folk museum, telling the history of Glasgow and its people from 1750 to 2000. One of Billy Connolly's banana boots is on display. The Winter Gardens are a large adjacent glasshouse. As of May 2026, the museum and glasshouse are closed for refurbishment, with the timeline for re-opening unclear.

The temperance activist Kate Cranston established a chain of artistic tea rooms, where citizens (especially women) could enjoy non-alcoholic refreshments in genteel surroundings. Her designer was Charles Rennie Mackintosh, and this Sauchiehall St branch, opened in 1903, was the most popular and has been lovingly restored. It's still a cafe-bistro, and that's the best way to enjoy it. But so many people have come just to look at the decor that it's morphed into a museum, so taking a tour or having a meal is now the only way to see the Room de Luxe on the second floor.

GSA is an independent art school offering university level programmes and research in architecture, fine art and design. It also has evening classes and a summer school. However the main draw for general visitors was its Mackintosh building, one of CRM's finest. This was severely damaged by fire in 2014, and restoration was coming along nicely when a worse fire struck in 2018. The only saving grace was that much of the art collection (with many Mackintosh pieces of furniture) was rescued from the first fire and hadn't returned, so along with the decanted teaching arrangements wasn't affected by the second fire. Another rebuilding is in progress, which has a £100M budget and is expected to complete in 2030. So for the next few years you can't visit the building, but see the GSA website for an online tour of the collection, and details of physical exhibitions in other buildings such as the graduating students' show in early June.

Miss Agnes Toward was a shorthand typist who lived here 1911-1965 and never changed or discarded a thing. So it's a wonderful gas-lit Edwardian time-warp, now in the keeping of the National Trust for Scotland.

The home of the bagpipes is in the former Cowcaddens Free Church. The museum shows 300 years of piping history, mainly showing Scottish bagpipes, but also showing Northumbrian pipes and some from Poland, Hungary, Italy and Spain. The piping centre also has a restaurant, an 8-room hotel and teaches piping.

Grand Edwardian Baroque pile endowed by the Mitchell tobacco fortune and opened in 1911. It houses a huge municipal public reference library, with over a million volumes and many more primary source archives for tracing family and civic history. It was gutted by fire in 1962 but the facade survived, and in 1980 a less-than-elegant extension was added with an events venue.

built around 1860, is the centrepiece of the well-heeled Park District. If they were aiming to recreate Bath, what they got was Edinburgh Scotland Street, with legal brassplates set around a leafy oval - the Montessori School seems inevitable. Approaching from Kelvingrove Park, come up the imposing Granite Stairs from the south. The steps were once a pilgrimage site for fans of the rock band Deacon Blue, as the view from the top was the cover picture of their 1987 album Raintown. But tree growth and other development since means you can no longer recreate that cloud-wracked vista, nor the rear-cover view of the M8.

stretches west, with the River Kelvin running through it. It was laid out in the 1850s when the city's earlier green space, Glasgow Green, became hemmed in by slums. The bandstand was refurbished in 2014, and worthy statues include physicist Lord Kelvin, writer Thomas Carlyle, Field Marshal Lord Roberts and chemist Lord Lister. It's always open and popular with students of the nearby university; see below for the museum and gallery in its west corner. The easiest access from city centre is by bus towards Argyle St; by Subway use Kelvinbridge north or Kelvinhall west.

Magnificent public gallery and museum, opened in 1901 as a legacy of the 1888 International Exhibition. It's in red sandstone, in sort-of Spanish Baroque via St Pancras, and was refurbished in 2006. Extensive collections and displays, well-geared to children and families. The 22 galleries cover natural history, civilisation from ancient Egypt to the present, big-name artists such as Dalí, Van Gogh, Monet and Rembrandt, and furnishings by Rennie Mackintosh. A Supermarine Spitfire hangs in the main hall. The organ in the main hall has recitals M-Sa at 1PM and Sundays at 3PM.

is across the street from Kelvingrove and mirrors its style. This was the city's main event and exhibition venue until SECC opened in 1985, see "Do". It's since been a bit of everything and nowadays is a study and research outpost of the Hunterian, a storage facility for Glasgow Museums, and has a climbing wall and soft play areas. The Moving Image Archive of the National Library of Scotland lets you watch archive films and videos - fill a wet afternoon by watching a 100 year old film.

main Gilmorehill campus is a district of half a square mile, bounded to the east by the River Kelvin, to the north by Great Western Road, south by Dumbarton Road, and west by Byres Rd - by Subway use Hillhead. It was founded in 1451, the fourth oldest in the UK, and has some 21,000 undergraduates, 11,500 postgrads, 4700 academic staff, and earns high ratings for teaching and research. You can stroll the neo-Gothic area anytime, but the main visitor attractions are the several branches of the Hunterian, founded around the vast collections of William Hunter (1718-83). Three are on campus, and there's a satellite museum in Dumfries.

It holds a huge collection of work by Whistler, Rennie Mackintosh, the Scottish Colourists and the Glasgow Boys. The Mackintosh House is a reconstruction of the interior of CRM's nearby home, which was lost to university expansion in the 1960s. So he didn't design that house, but embellished the interior in his distinctive style.

The Hunterian artwork and dead animals are now in separate buildings, so this museum is on the theme of civilisation. It exhibits many Roman findings from the Antonine Wall, the development of medicine in Glasgow, and Kelvin's scientific instruments. "Curating Discomfort" confronts the many links between the collections and Western colonialism, slavery, tobacco and partial versions of history.

"Zoology" over the door proclaims the intent, and it's a classical natural history museum where stuffed animals regard you with reproachful glass eyes.

Extensive gardens established in 1842 besides the River Kelvin, with tropical and temperate plants. Its distinctive landmark is the Kibble Palace, a 19th-century wrought-iron temperate glasshouse, rebuilt 2004-06.

The remains of an ancient forest of Lepidodendron, extinct giant quillworts. About 330 million years ago this area flooded with mud, which killed the trees but made casts of their trunks. They were discovered during quarrying in 1887, and enclosed by a building for protection. This is open at weekends, while the rest of Victoria Park is always open.

This elegant footbridge between Hutchisontown on the south river bank and Glasgow Green on the north opened in 1855.

This school, opened in 1906, was Charles Rennie Mackintosh's last major building. It was a wonderful Art Nouveau design (so naturally it was way over budget) and closed in 1979 when the Gorbals slums were demolished and school enrolment fell. In 1990 it was converted into a museum of school education, with Victorian / Edwardian classrooms, and an exhibition on the work of Mackintosh. It's now again closed for rebuilding, which will partially return it to educational use for early years.

Science museum with hundreds of interactive exhibits for children. You pay extra for the IMAX cinema, planetarium and the 125-metre Glasgow Tower (summer only), the only tower in the world which can rotate 360 degrees from its base.

Offers an excellent collection of vehicles and models telling the story of transport by land and sea, with a unique Glasgow flavour. Besides the usual rail locomotives, buses, trams, cars and planes, the museum also includes a recreated Subway station and a street scene of old Glasgow. The museum was designed by Zaha Hadid and completed in 2011.

The Glenlee was built in 1896, a three-masted cargo barque. She plied to Australia then was sold for use as a Spanish training vessel. She was eventually laid up in Ferrol, and in 1990 on the verge of being scrapped, but was towed to Glasgow for restoration.

The present church is from 1888, but there's been a church here since the 6th century, and from about 900 AD it looks to have been the ecclesiastic centre and royal burial ground of the Kingdom of Strathcylde. There's an impressive collection of 9th-11th century tombs and grave slabs, many of Norse "hogback" design, suggesting that Vikings and ancient Britons coexisted here whenever they weren't hacking each other to bits. Many stones were lost when Govan shipyards were demolished and they were mistaken for masonry rubble, and the survivors have been moved within the church for safekeeping.

Govan became the city's main shipbuilding quarter once the Clyde channel was blasted open, and Fairfield was one of its leading companies. Built to impress in 1891, these were the august headquarters of a series of shipbuilders until the last vacated in 2001. It's now a heritage space and museum of Clyde shipbuilding.

In 1901 a German design magazine ran a competition for a Haus eines Kunstfreundes, a house for an art lover. Charles Rennie Macintosh's entry was late and incomplete so it was disqualified, but awarded a special prize for its creative designs harmonising exterior and interior. From the 1980s there was a project to build to his original design, and this was completed in 1996. The building needed to pay its way, and wouldn't be viable just as a museum piece, so from the outset it was constructed as an event space not part of the original design for a residence. That means it's often closed, especially in wedding season. It is however a wonderful realisation of the Rennie Mackintosh style, which you will be so grateful you don't have to live in, with those bolt-upright chairs and where even the cutlery and bathroom fittings have to be exactly so.

The park has a sports centre and an artificial ski slope. The park is often used for open-air concerts and similar events. Its biggest audience to date, of 250,000, was for the visit of Pope John Paul II in 1982. (Benedict XVI drew about a third of that in 2010.) The park used to extend all the way to Pollok Country Park, which you can reach (for the Burrell Collection) by walking along Drumbreck Road to pass under M77.

The only church built to a design by Rennie Mackintosh, opened in 1899 for what was then the Free Church. They'd split with the Church of Scotland in 1843 but were reconciled in 1929, so the building continued as C of S until it closed in 1976. The exterior looks squat and Gothic, you wouldn't recognise it as the work of CRM, but the interior is distinctively his. (He also designed for Liverpool Cathedral, but that was built to a different design.) The church is now the headquarters of the Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society, with a small shop.

Sir William Burrell (1861-1958) was a shipping magnate who amassed a huge art collection. He gifted it to the city with the condition that it should be displayed in a nearby yet rural setting, and this was difficult to satisfy until Pollok House was acquired in extensive parkland, and the purpose-built gallery was added. It was closed 2014-2022 for refurbishment and even now can only show a fraction of his 9000-strong collection. Other items appear in the various city museums such as Kelvingrove.

Wonderful stylish off-beat villa, built in 1858 by the influential Alexander 'Greek' Thomson. It was originally the home of a paper magnate, and a copy was built for another tycoon in Adelaide in 1885. Holmwood had several owners then the Sisters of Our Lady of The Missions, who piously obliterated all style and decor beneath the dullest paint they could find. They left in the 1990s and it was acquired by the National Trust for Scotland, who have been restoring it ever since.

Ruin of a turret built in 1400 within a 12th-century earthwork, and repaired after a siege of 1544. It's perched on a hill over the Levern Water and has an unusual "X" design: a sturdy central keep within four corner towers; only the northeast of these survives.

This stonking great cantilever crane stands 49 m tall. It was built in 1907 to instal massive items such as boilers, engines and gun turrets during ship construction, enabling John Brown & Co to build bigger ships than their competitors. it survived the 1941 blitz of Clydebank but the UK ship-building industry failed in the 1970s and the crane fell derelict. It was restored from 2005 and opened as a visitor attraction, but has been closed since 2018. You ascend by lift to the breezy platform, which has been used as a bungy-jump platform.

Garden surrounding an 18th-century mansion, which in 1976 passed to the National Trust for Scotland. It has a large walled garden and parterre, and a brilliant display of daffodils and bluebells in spring. The mansion is an events venue and you can't tour it.

A student favourite, Sleazy's is a cross between a bar and a nightclub. Live bands most nights downstairs, and the bar upstairs also has small acts. Over 18s only.

Opened in 1934, but rebuilt in ever-so-Sixties style after a fire, this is a popular live venue with 1900 standing capacity. It's renowned for its sprung dance floor and excellent acoustics.

Venue for up-and-coming bands, where Oasis and Glasvegas were discovered.

Rock club founded in 1990.

Opened in 2003, this venue in Gorbals hosts rock, indie and comedy, and has a capacity of 2500.

Alternative music venue in a former tacky "adult" cinema.

Large events and exhibition venue, the main theatre (Hall 4) seats 10,000. Opened in 1985, it was that first of what's grown into an "Event Campus", with the Armadillo and the Hydro following.

They've capitulated, and re-named this shiny metal venue what Glaswegians have called it since it opened in 1997. It has a 3000-seater auditorium and is part of the "Scottish Event Campus" alongside the SEC Centre and OVO Hydro. They're at pains to point out that it wasn't inspired by Sydney Opera House, it's supposed to represent ship's hulls. If so, they're bottom-up like The Poseidon Adventure.

Stonking great hall completed in 1990, with a main auditorium seating 2475 and four other spaces of 300+. It's home to the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, who perform throughout Scotland. The same management also runs City Halls and the Fruitmarket. Just below the basement run the Subway trains, with a thick rubber barrier to block the rumblings.

Primarily a teaching college but they also put on public performances of classical and contemporary music, ballet and dance, musical theatre, and contemporary drama.

What you see now outside is the modern frontage added in 2014, but the interior is the French Renaissance design adopted after the first major fire in 1879; it was rebuilt thus after the second fire in 1896. The venue opened in 1867 and opera was always a major offering, since in those days you could show it at a profit. From 1957 to 1974 Scottish Television was based here, then it became the home of Scottish Opera and later of Scottish Ballet. It stages mainly "serious" theatre, opera and ballet.

This was built over the derelict Tron Kirk in 1980 - the steeple remains. It's a "producing theatre" like Citizens (below), putting on contemporary works.

Legendary theatre in working-class Gorbals: its predecessor opened in 1878 and the Citizens took over in 1945. This is a "producing theatre", creating its own shows from scratch, so it's contemporary and avant-garde work in a Victorian showcase. It's often been at odds with authority, but having the City Provost denounce "kinky claptrap appealing only to mentally ill weirdos" ensured sell-out productions. A glittering roll-call of big names has graced its boards. The historic building was re-built 2019-2025.

Former tram depot turned into an art space, and one of the hosts for Citizens Theatre work until that building is renovated.

Glasgow's main traditional theatre, a grand affair of 1904 seating 1785. It shows mostly musicals, comedy and panto.

This was founded in 1904 and has seen many of the greatest stars of music hall perform, such as a then-unknown Charlie Chaplin. Neither the building nor its offerings have changed much over the years. They're proud of being an unsubsidised independent venue, which means a diet of crowd-pleasing light theatre, musicals, comedy and panto. You're not destined to see Parsifal here unless some celebs do it in drag.

The oldest surviving music hall in the world, this was built in Italianate style in 1857, intended for shops but opening as a free-standing entertainment complex. Big names who boosted their early careers here include Stan Laurel in 1906 (his début, 20 years before he teamed up with Oliver Hardy), the debonair Jack Buchanan and the salt-of-the-earth Harry Lauder. Glasgow audiences were notorious for leaving no turn un-stoned (shipyard rivets and rancid turnips were traditional missiles) - toilets only arrived in 1893 and young boys used the balcony to pee on performers. The installation of a zoo in 1908 hardly made audience manners worse. The music hall folded in 1938 and the space was adapted for retail and industry. It's been re-opened and shows mostly light fare such as burlesque and comedy. There's no heating, so dress accordingly. No wheelchair / disabled access.

Entertainment centre in the former Kelvinside Parish Church, with restaurant, pub, nightclub, theatrical and music and events venues, a fixture of the West End social scene. There are regular lunchtime plays in the "A Play, A Pie and A Pint" series, where the ticket includes a pint of beer and a pie or quiche.

Stand-up comedy club.

Independent cinema opened in 1939 showing classics, and art and foreign-language movies - the advent of "talkies" made these less accessible to British audiences. It hosts the annual Glasgow Film Festival.

Opened in 1921 in what had been a cab office and funeral parlour, this shows mostly mainstream films.

Multiplex with 18 screens. They also have edge-of-town sites at The Forge and Barrhead.

The newest cinema in Glasgow city centre boasts big comfy reclining chairs

Scotland's national stadium has a capacity of 51,866 for football matches and 44,000 for athletics. It hosts other sporting events as well as concerts, and houses the Scottish Football Museum. The Scottish men's and women's soccer teams play their home games here. It may be difficult to get tickets for a men's World Cup or Euros qualifier but any other game should be fine. Stadium tours are available on non-match days. If you get the train, expect to queue for the station post-match due to the outflow of fans. Hampden used to be the home ground of Queen's Park, but they are in the throes of moving next door.

Celtic play soccer in the Premiership, Scotland's top tier, and are Scotland's most successful club. The stadium (capacity 60,400) is two miles east of city centre, between A74 London Rd and A728 Clyde Gateway. See the club website for tickets, match day info such as travel disruptions, stadium tours, and no end of merchandising. Celtic were founded in 1888 at St. Mary’s church in the Calton area for the purposes of alleviating Irish immigrant poverty, and in the years since have risen to be the dominant force in Scottish football, and are the only Scottish side to win the European Cup. The women's team play in the Scottish Women's Premier League, their top tier, with home games at Penny Cars Stadium in Airdrie.

Rangers also play in the Premiership, where since returning they have finished runners-up to Celtic in all but one season. They play at Ibrox Stadium (capacity 50,800) in Govan and are Scotland's second-most successful club. In 2012, the business entity controlling the affairs of the football club entered liquidation, and the rest of Scottish football controversially voted for Rangers FC to start from the Scottish Third Division (now Scottish League 2) at the beginning of the 2012/13 season. They fought their way back up to re-enter the top tier in 2016, whereupon the 'Old Firm Derby' versus Celtic could resume its rightful place in the sporting calendar. Rangers women's team play in the Women's Premier League, their top tier; home games are held at Rangers training facility in Milngavie. See the club website for tickets, stadium and museum tours, and merchandise. In the summer of 2023 Rangers opened a new museum and events space called 'New Edmiston House'. The official Glasgow City Sightseeing tour bus will take you to Ibrox Stadium on the city tour where the stadium, museum and club shop can be visited.

"The Jags" play in the Scottish Championship, the second tier. They're named for the Partick district but since 1908 have been at Firhill, an all-seater stadium of capacity 10,100 in Maryhill. Getting a ticket shouldn't be a problem, but be wary when it's a big match towards the end of the season. They can be purchased here or by phone. Thistle have passionate fans, so bring some noise!

Queen's Park play in the Championship, the second tier. Despite an incredible run without a major trophy since 1893, they are still amongst Scotland's most successful clubs with ten Scottish Cups to their name. Historically they played at Hampden Park and owned it, but their limited fortunes and attendance made that a nonsense; only in 2019 did they turn professional. Hampden Park was sold to the Scottish Football Association in 2020 and from 2025-26, Queen's Park will play at The City Stadium (aka Lesser Hampden), a small stadium to the west of Hampden Park. Don't confuse them with Queen's Park Rangers, the team from London's Shepherd's Bush.

Glasgow City FC are a women's team playing in the Scottish Women's Premier League, of which they are reigning champions. They're not affiliated with any men's club and play at Petershill Park (capacity: 1,000, 500 seated) in Springburn, two miles north of the city centre. That makes them the leading women's team within Glasgow, as Celtic and Rangers women play out of town. Book tickets here.