River Side Museum Blog

 In this Blog I am going to talk about the River Side Museum in Glasgow: What is it, what can you see in it,  the new changing places in the River Side Museum and you will also hear feedback from Ruth who is the assistant manager at the River Side Museum too.

For those of you who haven’t been to the Riverside Museum before, it is Glasgow's transport museum. It opened on the 21st June 2012 

In the Riverside Museum you can see all different types of transport, old and new and there is even an old street with old fashioned shops.

I like going to museums in Glasgow including River Side Museum. I like seeing old modes of transport and I love walking down the old street and looking into old shops too. It is very interesting to see how people lived in the old days.

In November 2020, the Riverside Museum opened up their Changing Places toilet. The Riverside Museum was the first museum in Glasgow to get a Changing Places toilet facility. This is fantastic for Glasgow, getting another Changing Places in the city. I was honored to open the new Changing Places. I think it is great to see the Riverside Museum getting this Changing Places toilet facility and I hope many other museums and galleries will follow their lead.

I got the chance to interview the assistant manager of the Riverside Museum, Ruth on the new Changing Places toilet facilities. 

The Riverside Museum was built without a Changing Places toilet and as Ruth explains: ‘Planning for the Riverside Museum started around 2006, when Changing Places was in its infancy. I think architects were not aware that so many people needed more than just an “accessible” toilet.’

After it opened, visitors were leaving comments about lack of disabled access in the museum. In response, they decided to get a Changing Places toilet. As Ruth explains: ‘We were aware that our accessible toilet wasn’t good enough and that we needed to do better. We pride ourselves on being a welcoming, accessible museum that everyone can enjoy, and now we really meet that expectation’.

When it came to the River Side Museum installing their Changing Places, they found it very hard to do. Ruth adds: ‘It was pretty challenging! The new Changing Places toilet occupies the space of the original accessible toilet in the main hall, but we had to knock through into a staff changing room to make it bigger. Walls and ceilings needed to be reinforced to take the weight of the hoist and changing bed too. The Coronavirus pandemic didn’t help either, but with help from city build the toilet came together nicely’.

Ruth feels that the Riverside Museum is more inclusive now. She adds: ‘we are really pleased! It’s great to have a good news story, especially at the moment. We know this will make a huge difference to our visitors, and it feels nice knowing we’ve made it that bit easier for people to come along and enjoy a day out’.

Ruth's message to other venues is: ‘A Changing Places facility is now a legal requirement in all new public buildings, which is great news, and should make it much easier for disabled visitors and their families in the near future. I think the public increasingly expects venues to be inclusive and accessible, and the more Changing Places facilities there are, the more people will come to expect them as the norm. Disabled people have had to put up with terrible facilities for far too long – no-one should have to worry about going to the toilet when trying to enjoy a day out’.

The Riverside Museum is a great museum to visit and as you have seen, now it is more inclusive for everyone.  There is also the Tall Ship outside at Riverside Museum which has wheelchair access too. For info please visit: Riverside Museum — Glasgow Life

Written by Jill