Con-sultation, In-sultation: A Keelie View on the People’s Palace

Even worse than privatising our assets is the Council’s sham called ‘consultation’ with architects-New Practice. Consultation = Pulling the wool over our eyes, their well-used ‘model’. 

Despite the fact of 70,000+ online signatures and a very l-o-n-g established ‘Friends’ support group which includes world experts of renown and generations of museum users, the Council employs New Practice architects to consult 20 voters of Calton ward plus anyone who turns up at the Green on 11^th June 2022 – no time given! Not to mention an online questionnaire that fankles you into agreeing the Council’s real ambition for a commercialisation agenda. Are you smelling a whiff of the Chamber’s Potty about our squandered money down the drain?

Keelies know that since 1898, The People’s Palace and Winter Gardens has had a very clear designation – it is a palace for people’s memories and tranquil space for their well-being. Keelies say-there is NO NEED FOR A CONSULTATION – we demand FULL REFURBISHMENT NOW: we know the building – we use the building and we own the building! By historical occupation and use Keelies expect it to remain fully maintained and with free access. No consultation – full investment and re-greening now! And bleaching the integrity out of the museum Collection is yet more council intentional disinvestment of our assets. We all know how that pans out. 

The con-sultation wants us to rank 5 daft words to sum up the Calton! What’s right-rank is that our land and heritage is being spirited away with the culprits pensioned off and not sacked. £68 million for a refurb of the Burrell after only 34 years at the expense of dozens of sports, land, and heritage facilities lost forever. And it’s crumbs for the People’s Palace and Winter Gardens, the people’s heritage running on less than a shoestring for the past 124 years!

This con-sultation is a red herring no doubt cloaking greedy wee investors’ interests. The building already has its clear identity well loved by locals and over 200,000+ (2019) world visitors alike. Its purpose dovetails with the ancient history of the ground it stands upon. It is not for sale, not for repurpose and not for reimagining.

Keelies demand that the Council maintains the original brief for the building and gardens and finally invests in its collection and stops dumbing it down. Let’s rise to our duty and preserve the story of our struggles, let’s protect The People’s Palace and Winter Gardens, from council privatisation by stealth.
Assume this in-sultation is a con. Beware of Council scams.

In Defence of People’s Palace and Winter Gardens despite the Council £19.7 million funding gap[1].

On a recent visit to the People’s Palace and Winter Gardens Museum I was in the downstairs area only with a disabled person and we were hoping to enjoy the atmosphere of the Winter Gardens but were disappointed as it was closed.

However, I was quite surprised at the displays, the Glasgow-lite version of ourselves which we offer international and local visitors.  Whoever wrote the commentaries has focused on economic prestige but white-washed the social history reality of how it came about. For some reason Glasgow’s 4 Empire Exhibitions 1888, 1901, 1911 and 1938 are thought to merit a wall display. They ‘celebrate the City’s status as Second City of the Empire’. They simply glorified Empire as a golden era ignoring that its success was built on Africa slavery and the corporate looting of India masking oppressive regimes, violence, the bloodshed of estimated 35 million Indians perpetrating utter impoverishment.  A schoolchild would find the content questionable.  

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