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Top 10 Astonishing Facts about Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum

Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum is one of Scotland’s most popular free attractions sites. It features 22 themed, state-of-the-art galleries displaying an astonishing 8000 objects.

The collections at Kelvingrove are extensive, wide-ranging, and internationally significant. They include natural history, arms and armor, art from many art movements and periods of history, and much more.

The most famous painting on display at Kelvingrove is the Salvador Dali masterpiece ‘Christ of St John of the Cross. Sir Roger the Asian elephant is another big museum attraction. There is even a Spitfire plane hanging from the ceiling of the west court.

The refurbished building is an attraction in its own right and Kelvingrove. They welcome families because the displays are designed with children in mind. Besides all the exhibits, Kelvingrove has a restaurant, a café, and a gift shop.

The museum is located in the west end of Glasgow. There is pay and display car parking at the venue, but space is limited.

The car park has 10 spaces reserved for blue badge holders. These spaces are free of charge and there is no time restriction.

Access to Kelvingrove Car Park is signposted from Sauchiehall Street into Kelvin Way. However, there is also a car parking available at The Kelvin Hall at Bunhouse Road – just opposite Kelvingrove.

It is easy to reach the museum on public transport from the city center.  However, railway services are available.

It is only fifteen minutes walk from Partick train station and a ten-minute walk from Charing Cross train station.

Kelvingrove is five minutes walk from Kelvinhall subway station and ten minutes walk from Kelvinbridge subway station.

1. The Original Museum

The original Kelvingrove Museum opened in the latter half of the 19th century. It was housed in an enlarged 18th-century mansion called Kelvingrove House, to the east of the current site.

2. The Creative Designer of Kelvingrove Museum

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The construction of Kelvingrove was partly financed by the proceeds of the 1888 International Exhibition held in Kelvingrove Park.

The gallery was designed by Sir John W. Simpson and E.J. Milner Allen and opened in 1901 as the Palace of Fine Arts for the Glasgow International Exhibition held that year.

3. Spanish Baroque Style

It is built in a Spanish Baroque style, follows the Glaswegian tradition of using Locharbriggs red sandstone, and includes an entire program of architectural sculpture by George Frampton, William Shirreffs, Francis Derwent Wood, and other sculptors.

4. The Great Organ

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The centerpiece of the Centre Hall is a concert pipe organ constructed and installed by Lewis & Co. The organ was originally commissioned as part of the Glasgow International Exhibition, held in Kelvingrove Park in 1901.

The organ was installed in the concert hall of the exhibition, which was capable of seating 3,000 people. The Centre Hall of the then newly completed Art Gallery and Museum was intended from the beginning to be a space in which to hold concerts.

5. The Unique Installation of the Organ

The purchase price and installation costs of the organ were met from the surplus exhibition proceeds, and the organ was installed in the Centre Hall by Lewis and Co.

The present case front in walnut with non-functional display pipes was commissioned at this time from John W. Simpson. Simpson was the senior partner of Simpson & Milner Allen, architects of the gallery building.

6. The Unfortunate Front View Location

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There is an urban myth in Glasgow that the building was accidentally built back to front, and the architect jumped from one of the towers in despair upon realizing his mistake.

In reality, the grand entrance was always intended to face Kelvingrove Park.

7.  Most Popular in the United Kingdom after Refurbishments

Kelvingrove was reopened by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on 11 July 2006 after a three-year closure for major refurbishment and restoration.

The work, which cost around £35 million, was one-third funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and one-third by public donations.

The appeal included a new restaurant and a large basement extension to its display space to accommodate the 8,000 exhibits now on display. 

A new layout and wayfinding scheme was introduced to make the building more visitor-friendly, which was designed and executed by a London-based museum design company, Event Communications.

Immediately after its 2003–06 refurbishment, the museum was the most popular free-to-enter visitor attraction in Scotland, recording 2.23 million visitors in 2007.

These numbers made it the most visited museum in the United Kingdom outside London that year. From 2006 to 2009 the museum had 5 million visitors.

8. The Unique Collection from Europe and Internationally

The museum’s collections came mainly from the original Kelvingrove Museum and the McLellan Galleries. It has one of the finest collections of arms and armor in the world and a vast natural history collection.

The art collection includes many outstanding European artworks, including works by the Old Masters (Vecellio’s Madonna and Child with Saint Jerome and Saint Dorothy, Rembrandt van Rijn, Gerard de Lairesse, and Jozef Israëls),

French Impressionists (such as Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro, Vincent van Gogh, and Mary Cassatt), Dutch Renaissance, Scottish Colourists, and exponents of the Glasgow School.

The museum houses Christ of Saint John of the Cross by Salvador Dalí. The copyright of this painting was bought by the curator at the time after a meeting with Dalí himself.

For a period between 1993 and 2006, the painting was moved to the St Mungo Museum of Religious Life and Art.

However, there are collections from Egypt which qualifies the museum to have international exhibits.

9. The Beautiful Jewelry

The museum also contains a large gift of the decorative arts from Anne Hull Grundy, an art collector, and philanthropist, covering the history of European jewelry in the 18th and 19th centuries.

10. A Museum Worth A Visit

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It has stunning architecture and a family-friendly atmosphere. The exploration of the 22 galleries is an amazing discovery. Everything from art to animals, Ancient Egypt to Charles Rennie Mackintosh and so much more.