Riverside Museum

The museum opened in 2011 in a building by Zaha Hadid, a zigzag roof profile in zinc running from the street to the river with glass walls at both ends, designed as a tunnel between city and water. Inside are around three thousand objects: locomotives built in Springburn, which at its height produced a substantial share of the world's steam engines, Glasgow trams and subway cars, a wall of cars stacked on shelves, and three reconstructed streets of shopfronts from different decades that visitors walk through. Bicycles hang overhead in a bank. Moored outside on the Clyde is the Glenlee, a three-masted barque built at Port Glasgow in 1896, one of five Clyde-built sailing ships still afloat, which is free to board. Entry to both is free.

What you actually see

• The Hadid building - a zinc zigzag running from street to river.
• The Springburn locomotives - engines from a district that supplied the world.
• The reconstructed streets - shopfronts from different decades, walked through.
• The Glenlee - an 1896 Clyde-built barque moored outside, free to board.

When to go

Year-round; free and indoors, so busiest on wet days and in school holidays. The Glenlee closes in high wind. Weekday mornings are quietest outside term-time trips.

Honest expectations

The layout is deliberately non-linear and many visitors find it disorienting, with objects stacked high and hard to see. It is noisy and heavily used by families. Parking is charged and the site is a fair way from the city centre.

Nearby

The Clyde walkway runs east to the city; the Kelvingrove museum is a short drive.