Viral picture showing Winter Garden at People’s Palace in state of disrepair sparks furious reaction

What’s happening? The People’s Palace Winter Garden has been closed since 2018 for ‘essential repairs’. The Palace building was partially reopened earlier this year but the garden remains shut to the public.

Now a picture showing the state of disrepair of the garden has been shared on social media by Friends of the People’s Palace Winter Gardens and Glasgow Green.

The post shows the Winter Garden looking barren, with remains of dead plants and no trees.

It is accompanied, it states, by an FOI request showing that the council have spent £350k on the Winter Garden.

One of the people who manages the Friends of the People’s Palace Winter Gardens and Glasgow Green Facebook page, told GlasgowWorld:

“I was quite shocked, and horrified at the state of it,” said the individual who asked not to be identified.

“We knew there was work to be done but to have all the floors ripped up and all the facilities ripped out wasn’t how we imagined it happening, they have prevented us from seeing inside the garden which has been boarded up by the inside”

The individual added: “We still don’t know what the full plans are.”

A separate individual who also helps to manage the Facebook page and who also asked to remain anonymous told GlasgowWorld that the garden “means the world to Glaswegians”.

“The Winter gardens on Glasgow green were inaugurated in January 1898 because Glasgow was recognised as horrible, dark, gloomy climate,” they said.

“The rumour is they’re trying to pass it off now as a wedding venue, but it has been a wedding venue for the last 40 years. People have been choosing to get married there, Still Game even chose for a wedding to be there for the show.”

The individual added: “It’s been loved by Glaswegians and visitors to the city.

“We got a postcard from the early 1900s from somebody who sent it back to a friend in Liverpool and said, ‘Liverpool needs a place like this’. It was hugely popular, and always has been.”

Social media users have reacted calling it ‘disgraceful’ ‘heartbreaking’’awful and ‘gutting’.

One wrote: “This is destruction by the City Council of the property that belongs to the people of Glasgow, at the very least public consultation should have been carried out. The council leaders must be held to account for this.”

While another added: “This is so heartbreaking. I have so many happy memories of visiting when I was wee. I’ll always remember the smell of the plants in the humid air.”

A spokesperson for Glasgow City Council said: “Following the closure of the Winter Gardens at the end of 2018, all plants with a known horticultural value or significance were relocated to the Botanic Gardens or Queen’s Park.

“Others, including a number that were either diseased or otherwise reaching the end of their natural life, were not moved.

“These pictures were taken during the removal of the remaining overgrown vegetation, much of which was causing damage to the fabric of the Winter Gardens itself. This was essential in order to carry out structural survey work – which is vital in order to secure the future of the building.”

The People’s Palace is located in Glasgow Green and is home to a collection of objects, photographs, prints and film which give a view into how Glaswegians lived, worked and played in years gone by to the present day. The Winter Garden is a glasshouse which forms part of the museum both of which were opened in 1898 by The 5th Earl of Rosebery.