Do not judge a gallery by its cover.
5
5
Date of visit: October 2025
I am a disabled person. I have experience of challenges around: a hidden impairment and moving around.
Overall Rating
Excellent
Listen Gallery is not always in the same space. It goes where there is empty space to be filled and has currently made its home on the ground floor of a large modern building in Glasgow’s financial district. The project is run by just one volunteer and relies on a scheme that connects arts and culture organisations with corporate landlords that want to avoid paying fees for having their properties unused. So when I went to see an exhibition about a trans grassroots initiave, I was surprised to find myself in front of a high-end glass front that I thought would be no place for me. As soon as I was inside, though, I learned not to judge a book by its cover. The large space was full of colourful drapes and rugs, an eclectic mix of furniture, art on the walls and books and zines on shelves. It is truly an achievement to add gentleness and soul to a corporate building – well done! One of the first things you see as you come into the venue is a shelf with flyers, zines and free FFP2 and surgical masks. I was especially interested and happy to see the writing on mutual aid and radical kindness and community. This feeling of being welcome and cared for was further encouraged by the tables providing water, tea and coffee and even biscuits. The cosy seating area and record player along with the collection of vinyl made me want to snuggle up and listen closely. But on this occasion I was there to see an exhibition and the accompanying film. I visited as part of the Scottish Queer International Film Festival (SQIFF), which does a great job at prioritising accessibility and communicating access information. I hope my review can expand on that work! When not hosting the Camp Trans exhibition for SQIFF, the Listen Gallery is open for other events and workshops. You can find out about them on Instagram or in their newsletter. You can even get in touch to see whether you could host your own project there!
Disabled Access In and Around
Good
There are four steps with contrast markings and a handrail in the middle leading up to the entrance of the building, but there is a ramp going up on the left side parallel to the steps. There are tactile markings at the top of the stairs. The doors are automatic sliding doors leading into a foyer with a reception desk and some seating on the left, lifts straight ahead and the door to the Listen Gallery on the right. It is a set of non-automatic glass double doors with vertical metal bar handles opening to the outside. You enter into a small vestibule with a heavy single door to your right that opens to the outside left. Both doors were propped open when I visited. A long ramp curves around to the left from the second door up into the open space that houses the gallery. There are handrails on both sides starting a few steps up the ramp. Getting up the ramp was no issue for me in my powerchair, but it could be a bit of a workout in a manual wheelchair. The flooring in the foyer is low carpet and tile, the entrance and ramp and left edge of the gallery space are laminate, the rest very low carpet. Many of the visitors were masking and I found it an easy place to mask in, even though it was not an explicitly mask-only space. Even though the space is very large, I found it to be pretty quiet and the sound of conversations did not carry so much as to cause overwhelming noise. I think part of it was also people being very mindful of each other, though. The exhibition had a board with image descriptions, a film synopsis and content warnings printed in larger print in black on white. The seating in front of the projector was made up of mostly moveable chairs with cushioned seats and backrests and two cushioned benches without backrests. There was a lot of space for me to move around the exhibition and position my chair for viewing in front of the screen.
Accessible facilities: Step-free entrance, Single-level venue, Seating at regular intervals
Parking & Transport
Average
I travelled to this place by personal vehicle
There is on-street parking on York Street and the surrounding roads. I managed to get parked right in front of the door. What a treat! The York Street/James Watt Street bus stop on Broomielaw (X19) and the James Watt Street bus stop on Argyle Street (1, 1A, 1C, 1E, X4) are about a 0.1-mile/3-minute walk or wheel away. Glasgow Central station is a 0.2-mile/5-minute walk or wheel away.
Accessible facilities: Public or on street parking
Accessible Toilets
Good
There are two gender-neutral toilets towards the back left of the gallery space that are not wheelchair-accessible. There is a good-sized accessible bathroom for the whole building on the right beside the lifts, so you need to go back out to the foyer. The door opens to the outside right. No key is needed to access the bathroom. There is no door opener. The handle on both sides is a lever. There is a handrail and a mid-high coat hook on the back of the door and it locks with a twist lever. There is a large mirror on the wall to your left when you come in. The sink is on the back wall. The toilet is on the wall to your right. There is a fixed vertical and a horizontal handrail to the left of the toilet that can be lifted and moved out of the way and a fixed horizontal handrail on the wall to the right of the toilet. The flush is a spatula lever on the side of the cistern. The toilet paper holder is to the right below the horizontal handrail. There is space for a right-side transfer. There is a narrow bin and a coat hook on the far side of the transfer space. The red cord is to the right of the toilet and the sink. There are vertical handrails on either side of the sink. The sink is a small wall-mounted sink and the tap has a short lever. There is a wall-mounted soap dispenser to the right of the sink. There is a paper towel dispenser with a bin underneath in the corner to the left of the sink.
Facilities: Accessible toilet
Staff
Excellent
I had a nice extended conversation with the person who runs Listen Gallery. From when I entered and throughout my visit, they were quick to make sure that things were accessible for me, for example asking whether the door was still propped open as intended. I got the impression that they were very dedicated and working hard to make sure that the space was safe and welcoming to everybody. The person at the reception desk for the building was friendly and helpful. When I did not go inside the accessible bathroom for a bit because I thought someone was in there and waiting, they came to check if I needed help. When we discovered that the sign on the lock was wrong, they did not make me feel silly and said it would be reported for fixing.
