Grahame G.
Yelp
What a fabulous building! A spectacular piece of architecture, both outside and inside. Shame about the boxy carbuncle of a building that's going up across the road from it that completely obscures it from the town.
I have to say though, I was a bit disappointed with the use of space inside. The vast atrium takes up most of the building, which means there are really only two main exhibition spaces; one of these housing the temporary (paid) exhibitions, the other the more permanent exhibits.
The temporary exhibit on ocean liners was really great; we loved seeing the history of (mostly) Scottish shipbuilding, and there was a good selection of artefacts illustrating just how sumptuous and decadent some of these grand liners were - although once it got past the 1930's I mostly lost interest (I was never a fan of 70's design at the time and I'm still not!). We particularly liked the video wall recreating an ocean view off the deck with renowned ships like the QE2 sailing past (good photo opp!).
Of the other exhibition, the Charles Rennie Mackintosh Oak Room was the main attraction for us, and the main reason we came. But it felt like the rest of it should have been about three times the size it actually was. We actually spent some time looking around for a third gallery that isn't there.
The restaurant on the top floor had a reasonable menu, but the prices were rather on the expensive side so we gave it a miss. The cafe on the ground floor didn't draw us either so we went elsewhere for lunch.
The whole visit took us two and a half hours. It was worth a look, but apart from the architecture, we found it slightly underwhelming.