Gallus Glasgow

Gallus Glasgow is an interactive digital outreach project, managed and delivered by Glasgow City Heritage Trust, aimed at broadening access to the city’s built heritage through immersive storytelling. It explores the development of Glasgow during the ‘Gilded Age’ of the Victorian period, through the eyes of Thomas Sulman, illustrator of the Bird’s Eye View of Glasgow, first published in The Illustrated London News in 1864.

We restored, digitised and developed the map into a 3D animation that showcases different areas of the city and its various built environments; from the hazardous High Street wynds and Broomielaw shipyards, to the fresh spaces of Glasgow Green and the west end, and the raucous taverns of the Merchant City, sharing a day in the life of a working Irish-immigrant family.

In collaboration with GCHT we created individual stories for each character, taking viewers down to street level throughout the city, opening up Glasgow’s civic spaces to new audiences and creating opportunities to engage in the Trust’s outreach activity program. Character dossiers and archive resources are available on the project website, along with further research and reading recommendations.

We created a distinct and bespoke art style that evokes a sense of entering the map. We created unique digital models of each building, interior and public space featured and textured them using material photography gathered across Glasgow.

The original score and sound design created authentic atmospheres that we hope evoke the Victorian city and its inhabitants to contemporary viewers using foley collected and recorded around Glasgow in 2021.

From site sketch research and by drawing upon historic photographic records we aimed to make the built and natural environments in the animation as historically and atmospherically accurate as possible, from paddle steamers and loading docks on the Clyde to the cobbled streets of the affluent west end.

2D characters were placed throughout the 3D world, showing the various styles of dress that would have been worn at that time, from high necked governesses blouses and layered domestics dresses to heavy aprons and work wear worn by shopkeepers, dock workers and builders alike.

In addition to the five minute animation we produced promotional teasers alongside 2D branding for the project and a bespoke microsite that hosts the animation, project research and an interactive map to which visitors can add their own insights and memories of Glasgow.

The project was funded by Hugh Fraser Foundation, Glasgow City Heritage Trust, Norbulk Shipping UK Ltd., Culture & Business Scotland Fund.

“We are already seeing the benefits of the accessible and inclusive nature of the project through community additions to the online map, the expansion of our online audiences into a younger and more diverse demographic and its use in classrooms as a learning resource.” - Rachel Kacir and Gemma Wild, GCHT

"A cracking resource for discovering Victorian Glasgow." - Emily Munro, National Library of Scotland

"A trailblazing project in the world of heritage presenting a truly unique opportunity for unheard voices." - Lauren Mallin, That Museum Girl