The People’s Palace and Winter Gardens has received a £5.7 million donation from the National Lottery Heritage Fund to go towards renovation and preservation work, one of the highest amounts a Scottish project has been given.
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00:00 Today, absolutely emotional, delighted, so happy.
00:06 I'm not going to start crying, but I could.
00:08 This is the largest glasshouse of its type in Scotland,
00:13 so it is truly an amazing heritage asset.
00:16 You can't really imagine anyone trying to build something like this today.
00:21 And the key challenge is how you bring it back into wider public use
00:25 for people to enjoy in a sustainable way,
00:27 so that it's not just for a few years, but for generations to come.
00:31 So this is a really exciting opportunity for us.
00:34 It means we can move ahead with the development phase.
00:36 That involves an enormous amount of public consultation
00:39 with the community and with individuals,
00:41 people who've used the Palace and Winter Gardens,
00:43 people who perhaps haven't,
00:45 to allow us to inform what this museum should be for the 21st century,
00:49 to reimagine it and to apply new technology and exciting new opportunities.
00:52 So we're really delighted,
00:54 and it opens the door for us to secure the full £7.5 million
00:57 of funding from the Lordship to support the full refurbishment project.
01:00 Friends of the People's Palace, Winter Gardens and Glasgow Green
01:03 is a group that was established back in 2018/19,
01:09 when the closure of the Winter Gardens really upset everyone in Glasgow
01:14 to see it closed.
01:16 And we started a campaign with various demos and whatnot,
01:23 but what we did have was the great support of the people of Glasgow
01:28 and other organisations as well.
01:30 And I think it made such an impact that people then started to realise
01:36 how important this place was and how it had to be kept.
01:39 Glasgow's got an amazing built heritage and environmental heritage.
01:45 It's got one of the greenest cities in the UK in terms of green space,
01:49 but it's all got to be invested in and looked after.
01:52 And therefore we need Glasgow Life and the council and other players
01:57 to step up and try and do this.
02:00 And the Lottery Fund is delighted to be able to sort of pump-prime
02:03 some of this activity and make it all happen.
02:05 And it fits with our strategy of more accessibility,
02:11 more heritage saved and secured for the future,
02:14 but also generating activity for the economy and for people
02:19 and jobs hopefully into the future.
02:21 It's a social history and it's a place that you can come.
02:25 It doesn't cost you anything.
02:27 You don't need to dress up to come.
02:29 It's for the ordinary person to come in
02:32 and you don't need to be super intellectual to walk down.
02:36 It's not like a high-class museum that you have to be,
02:39 know all about the artists and all of that.
02:41 It's so interesting and you learn so much.
02:44 It's very educational and it's just all about the great things
02:49 that were done in Glasgow in the past.
02:52 And it's a wonderful place for people to come.