Seven Up: Riverside Museum.

First up in my re-review/catch up on Glasgow's Autistic friendly venues is one of our favourites and a place we visit frequently - the fantastic Riverside Museum  (AKA the Transport Museum).

 

As mentioned previously, the Riverside has over 3,000 objects on display - there's everything from skateboards to steam trains, paintings to prams and cars to a Star Wars Stormtrooper and often hosts a myriad of (free) transport themed events within the museum grounds including hands on vintage vehicle days and even interactive Star Wars events (reviewed here). 

And to be fair I've said before that there's not much you can do to realistically  'Autism-up' something like an art gallery or museum but the Riverside (and its staff) have always seemed to be totally onboard when it comes to the needs of Autistic visitors - the layout of the museum has a nice, consistent feel and the map (handed out as you enter) is clear and uncluttered, there's a dedicated quiet space and sensory bags available, the interactive exhibits are always working (in the last 7 years the Sinclair C5 has only ever been out of order once, which is amazing if you consider it's an interactive exhibit), any changes or events occurring are always well publicized and the staff are quite probably the most friendly and approachable of any venue I know.

Plus the - really useful and well presented - visual storyboards are still available and can now be found on the Riverside website here.

All in all a fantastic venue that (still) seems to want to go that extra mile.

Which is why we love it so and it's Cassidy's favourite museum.

 To be honest the only thing I would change is to actually get rid of the advertised 'Autism friendly hour' as the venue is quite probably THE most Autistic accessible museum there is in Glasgow and the discussion over the times and frequency of the Autism sessions (a huge bugbear when it comes to Autistic advocacy) is more than likely to take away from how brilliant the museum and staff actually are.

Please Glasgow Life just print Riverside up a sign saying "We're totally Autistic friendly!" and have done with it because it's a brilliant place!

Just bring back Edie McCredie's bus please.

And a police box.

Even a red one will do.