For ninety minutes, the Glasgow you know will fall away. In its place rises a city plunged into a pre industrial night, where streetlamps vanished, department store windows - once bright showcases - disappeared into darkness, leaving the city’s grand shopfronts mute and lightless and every journey after dusk became an act of careful choreography.

We’ll explore how the blackout transformed the cityscape and the people who moved through it:

•    Crime in the shadows - from nimble fingered pickpockets to more serious offences hidden by the dark.
•    Accidents and near misses - the kerbs, walls without railings, static water tanks and masked headlights that turned every street into a hazard.
•    Blackout shopping - the department stores selling the tools of 'darkening the house,' described as  the 'task of the times'.
•    Romance in the dark - the quiet moments shared by courting couples, cuddling together on park benches in a city without light.
•    Beating the blackout blues - theatre, cinema, dancehalls, and even the novelty dance named after the gloom.
•    The night sky revealed - stars blazing over Glasgow as they hadn’t since the 1800s.

What was it like to walk through the city at night in near total darkness, relying on sound rather than sight? You’ll hear how Glaswegians learned to navigate by instinct: counting fifteen before moving, letting their eyes adjust when stepping out of buildings, and waiting until buses and trams had fully stopped before daring to disembark.

Discover the strange rituals of blackout life:

•    Road Safety Month, created to stem the rising tide of injuries.
•    Postmen emptying letterboxes by the full moon, the only natural light available.
•    Christmas shopping in the dark, browsing in a city where the shop windows had vanished into darkness.
•    Blackout infringements, fines, and the ever watchful ARP wardens and police patrolling the city centre.

For 90 minutes, you’ll be transported back to a Glasgow where darkness ruled - a city that had to relearn how to walk, work, shop, and survive without light.

Come along, step into the shadows, and experience the city as it once was: silent, star lit, and utterly transformed.