
On this day in 1983 The Burrell Collection was opened by Queen Elizabeth II in Pollok Park, Glasgow.
The 拢20m gallery contains more than 8,000 works of art collected by Glasgow shipping magnate, Sir William Burrell, who died in 1958. After amassing a fortune thanks to shrewd business sense, Burrell dedicated his retirement to travelling the world procuring a huge, eclectic selection of high quality artworks. In 1947 he bequeathed the collection to the people of Glasgow, but stipulated that it must be housed in a rural setting. The difficulty of finding a location meant he never saw his dream realised. It was not until the MacDonald family left their Pollok Estaste to the City of Glasgow in 1967 that a suitable site was found.


