Please be aware that the following venues are CLOSED until further notice:
Paisley: The Secret Collection
The Heritage Centre
While Paisley Museum undergoes its radical transformation, we will continue to deliver a programme of services and events in the present day to ensure that you can still explore Paisley’s remarkable heritage and collections.
The Secret Collection is the first publicly accessible museum store on a UK high street, and you are welcome to explore it on a free guided tour.
Our working store holds over 350,000 artefacts including visitor favourite, Buddy the Lion. For the first time, the facility has allowed our specialist Curatorial team to undertake a full review of the collection. This is exciting news for our interpretation plans at the refurbished museum.
Our tours are fully accessible to anyone who wishes to find out more about the collection. Arrangements can be made for specialist group tours or visits out with public tour times. The Secret Collection also participates in Doors Open Day and other open day events.
Our venue is equipped with 6 stores, a meeting room and a research room where members of the public, students, academics can book to undertake research and request to view and examine objects from the collection.
If you would like to explore the present collection for yourself, please book your free guided tour at Renfrewshire Leisure’s website. The Secret Collection is just a two-minute walk from Paisley Gilmour Street train station and is located at the address below:
The Secret Collection
9 High Street
Paisley
PA1 2AE
0141 618 5129
The Heritage Centre is a collection of local archive materials and historical resources, which tell the story of Renfrewshire, its people and its places.
Here, you will be given the tools to trace your family tree, learn about your local history and much more.
Feel welcome to delve into your own self-directed research, the Heritage Archive Centre is free to visit and use and is open Monday-Saturday, 9am-5pm.
Please note that the Heritage Centre closes for lunch between 12pm–1pm on Saturday.
Our friendly staff will always be on hand help you get started with your research project.
For more information, please visit Paisley.is or Renfrewshire Leisure.
Heritage Centre
Studio 907
Mile End Mill
Abbeymill Business Centre
12 Seedhill Road
Paisley
PA1 1JS
Example: The Museum has some of the oldest and most important entomology collection in the world. Gathered over 300 years, these specimens are key to telling the history of collecting, the science of taxonomy and the human desire to understand the natural world. The microscope slide represented at the top of the page is the one of of Soldier Beetles specimens from the Natural History Collection.
In the 1820s, James Audubon declared his ambition to paint every bird species living in North America. The result, ‘Birds of America’, is a monumental piece of work. Very few complete volumes remain today, and Paisley Museum is one of the few institutions to hold a full set of this publication.
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OneRen is curating a series of talks in February and March telling the stories of the museum's world-class shawl collection. Paisley’s textile collection unfolds Paisley’s industrial heritage, from its humble beginnings to its global success and its tragic decline.
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Renfrewshire Leisure, the organisation that operates and manages Paisley Museum on behalf of the Renfrewshire Council, has changed its name to OneRen.
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