About
The Alasdair Gray Archive preserves and makes publicly accessible the visual and literary work of Alasdair Gray, the Glasgow writer, painter and muralist whose novel Lanark, published in 1981 after some thirty years in the making, is widely regarded as one of the defining Scottish books of the twentieth century. Established in March 2020, a few months after Gray's death in December 2019, the Archive occupies premises in The Whisky Bond, a converted bonded warehouse at Speirs Locks in the north of Glasgow that now houses artists' studios and creative organisations.
Gray was that genuinely unusual figure, an artist and a writer of equal seriousness in both disciplines, and the Archive is deliberately structured to reflect that rather than treating the painting as a footnote to the books. Its holdings include original visual artworks, sketches and drawings, the complete run of his original prints, literary papers, photographs and correspondence, and a section of his personal library. Every one of Gray's published works is held. He designed his own books entirely, from typography and illustration to the jackets and the marginal decorations, and the Archive allows visitors to see how the visual and the literary sides of a single imagination fed one another.
The most striking element is a restaging of Gray's working studio, assembled from his own materials and furniture, which conveys the physical circumstances in which he produced murals, portraits and manuscripts across six decades. Visitors familiar with his public murals — the ceiling of the Òran Mór auditorium in Hillhead, the concourse mural at Hillhead subway station — find the studio a revealing counterpoint to those large public commissions.
The Archive is free and open to the public, but visits are by advance booking and proof of identity is required, reflecting its status as a working archive holding fragile original material rather than a walk-in gallery. It is fully wheelchair accessible. Monthly guided tours of The Whisky Bond building also take in the Archive, and it participates in Glasgow's Doors Open Days each September, which is the one reliable way to see it without an appointment. For a writer and artist so thoroughly identified with Glasgow, it is fitting that the archive sits in a converted warehouse by a canal rather than in a national institution's basement.
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Plan Your Visit
⏱️ Recommended Visit Duration
💡 Visitor Tips
- Book your visit in advance. The Archive is free but does not accept walk-ins, and staffing is small, so give as much notice as you can.
- Bring photographic identification. Proof of identity is required on arrival, as it would be at any working archive holding original material.
- Say when booking if there is anything specific you want to see — particular manuscripts, prints or papers can often be brought out if the request is made ahead of time.
- Pair the visit with Òran Mór on Byres Road, where Gray's vast painted auditorium ceiling can be seen, and with the mural at Hillhead subway station, for a fuller sense of his public work.
- If booking a visit proves difficult, the monthly Wednesday Wanders tours of The Whisky Bond include the Archive and require only a ticket rather than an individual appointment.
- Glasgow Doors Open Days each September offer the one reliable chance to visit without booking at all.
- Read or reread Lanark before coming if you can. The Archive rewards familiarity with the work far more than most literary collections.
- Allow time for the canal towpath outside; the walk along the Forth and Clyde towards Maryhill or back into the city centre is a pleasant addition to the trip.
Highlights
The Restaging of Gray's Studio
The Archive's most affecting element is a restaging of Alasdair Gray's working studio, assembled from his own furniture, materials, brushes, paints and accumulated clutter. It conveys, in a way no display case can, the physical circumstances in which a man who was simultaneously a novelist, painter and muralist actually worked across six decades.
Visitors familiar with Gray's grand public commissions — the Òran Mór ceiling, the Hillhead subway mural — often find the studio's domestic scale and evident disorder the most revealing thing in the building, a reminder that monumental public art gets made in ordinary rooms by people surrounded by their own mess.
Gray worked at home for most of his life, and the restaging preserves that domestic scale deliberately.
Original Artworks, Sketches and Drawings
Gray trained at Glasgow School of Art and considered himself a painter at least as much as a writer, and the Archive holds original visual works across the full span of his career: portraits of Glasgow friends and literary figures, cityscapes, preparatory sketches for the murals, and the intricate pen drawings that became his most recognisable visual signature.
Seeing the drawings at original size, rather than reproduced at book scale, reveals a precision of line and a density of detail that printing inevitably flattens, and makes the case for Gray as a serious visual artist far more effectively than any argument. He was for a period Glasgow's official artist-recorder, and the city portraits from that work are among the strongest things here.
The Complete Original Prints
The Archive holds all of Gray's original prints, a body of work that occupies the ground between his painting and his book design. Printmaking suited an artist who thought in outline, pattern and lettering, and the prints show him working out visual ideas that recur across the murals and the published books.
Because the holding is complete rather than selective, researchers and enthusiasts can trace the development of particular motifs — the human figures, the lettered banners, the elaborate borders — across the whole of his printmaking career in one place, rather than reconstructing it from scattered holdings in several collections.
Literary Papers, Manuscripts and Correspondence
The literary holdings comprise manuscripts, typescripts, working papers, photographs and correspondence documenting the writing of Lanark, 1982 Janine, Poor Things and the rest of Gray's published output. Lanark alone occupied him for roughly thirty years before its publication in 1981, and the papers record that extraordinarily long gestation.
The correspondence connects him to the wider circle of Scottish writers — James Kelman, Tom Leonard, Liz Lochhead and others — with whom he was associated during Glasgow's literary resurgence of the 1970s and 1980s, a period in which the city moved from cultural afterthought to the centre of Scottish writing.
Collections
The Alasdair Gray Archive holds the visual and literary estate of the Glasgow writer, painter and muralist Alasdair Gray (1934-2019). Holdings comprise original visual artworks, sketches and drawings; the complete run of his original prints; a restaging of his working studio assembled from his own materials and furniture; a section of his personal library; every one of his published works alongside the design material behind them; and literary papers, manuscripts, photographs and correspondence covering Lanark, 1982 Janine, Poor Things and the rest of his output.
Established in March 2020 following Gray's death, it operates as a free public resource with visits by advance booking and proof of identity required.
The Studio Restaging
Alasdair Gray's working studio reassembled from his own furniture, materials and tools, showing the physical conditions in which he produced murals, portraits, manuscripts and book designs.
The Visual and Literary Collections
Original artworks, the complete original prints, published works with their design material, personal library and literary papers, accessible to visitors and researchers by appointment.
Themes
Time Periods
Current Exhibitions
No current exhibitions. Please check the museum website for updates.