The People’s Palace and Winter Gardens in Glasgow, Scotland, is a museum and glasshouse situated in Glasgow Green, and was opened on 22 January 1898 by The 5th Earl of Rosebery.
The idea of “palaces for the people” drew on the writings of John Ruskin, William Morris and Annie Besant and the Glasgow People’s Palace took inspiration from its counterpart on Mile End Road in the East End of London. At the time, the East End of Glasgow was one of the most unhealthy and overcrowded parts of the city, and the People’s Palace was intended to provide a cultural centre for the people. It was designed by the City Engineer, Alexander B. McDonald, and decorated with sculptures representing Art, Science, Shipbuilding, Industry and Progress by William Kellock Brown. At the opening ceremony, Lord Rosebery described it as: “A palace of pleasure and imagination around which the people may place their affections and which may give them a home on which their memory may rest”. He declared the building “Open to the people for ever and ever”.