Glasgow Doors Open Days Festival

08/09/2026

📍 Explore Glasgow’s Vibrant City Centre

✨ With just 9 days to go until the festival kicks off, today we highlight some of the ticketed events still available across Glasgow City Centre and fantastic drop-in events you can simply turn up and enjoy on the day.

With 66 events already sold out across the programme, we'd recommend booking any ticketed events asap to avoid missing out. Enjoy!

🎟 Tickets Still Available For:
→ The Tenement House
→ The Mackintosh Tearooms
→ The Ramshorn
→ British Deaf Association Scotland.
→ Sharmanka Kinetic Theatre

🚶🏼‍♀️+ 🎟 Drop-in & Ticketed:
→ The Briggait

🚶🏽 Drop-in:
→ 'Sitting With The Stars' Exhibition - Edward House - Sauchiehall Street Culture & Heritage District
→ 'Memories & Matinees: Thomas McGoran's Glasgow' Exhibition - Edward House
→ High Court of Justiciary
→ voco Grand Central
→ Glasgow Art Club
→ The Police Museum
→ St Aloysius' Church
→ Scottish Glass Society
→ Trongate 103 - Glasgow Print Studio
→ Exhibition: 'From Well to Well Spring' at Glasgow City Heritage Trust
→ Archdiocese of Glasgow, St Andrew’s Cathedral
→ Britannia Panopticon Music Hall
→ Greyfriars Biophillic Garden
→ Glasgow Evangelical Church
→ Glasgow City Chambers
→ Cloud Water Zen Centre
→ Italian Garden and Arandora Star Memorial

We can’t wait for you to join us 17–20 September Find out more about the programme and book tickets via our website: https://www.glasgowdoorsopendays.org.uk/whats-on

📩 You can also stay up to date with all our latest news by signing up to regular newsletter: https://glasgowdoorsopendays.us6.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=2c0e9c0a4afc44b105118bbe3&id=42cba87d21

Doors Open Days

07/09/2026

We’re taking part in Glasgow Doors Open Days Festival this year! We’re hosting a special tour on Sunday 20th September, after our usual tours have finished for the year. Visit the GDOD website to find us in the programme: https://www.glasgowdoorsopendays.org.uk/events/ramshorn-graveyard

07/09/2026

🪩 Just added to the programme – SWG3 Talks

You can now book four fascinating talks at SWG3 exploring the venue's remarkable journey from industrial site to cultural hub – all happening on Thursday 17 September in celebration of this year's Glasgow Doors Open Days Festival theme: ‘Glasgow Goes Out: The Places That Made Us’:

🪴 ‘Growing SWG3: From Vacant Land to Community Garden’ – With the SWG3 Garden Team
🕛 10.30–11.30am

– Meet SWG3’s gardeners and discover how the community garden has evolved from a piece of vacant and derelict land into a thriving green space.

🎨 ‘From Walls to a Street Arts District - Yardworks: Art, Place and the City’ – With Laura Frood, Creative Placemaking Lead
🕛 1.30–2.30pm

– Discover the story behind Yardworks, SWG3’s pioneering street art and graffiti programme, and how it has grown from a festival into a wider programme of creative placemaking across the city.

❤️‍🔥 ‘Can a Nightclub Heat a Building? The Story of BODYHEAT and SWG3’s Sustainability Journey’ – With Eilidh McLaughlin, Sustainability Lead
🕛 3–4pm

– How can the heat generated by thousands of dancing bodies help heat a building? Find out how SWG3 developed its pioneering BODYHEAT system and hear about the venue’s wider approach to sustainability.

📐 'Building SWG3: Architecture, Place and the City - Glasgow Goes Out: How Do Places Shape The City?' – With Paul Stallan, Stallan-Brand, followed by Q&A With Alison Fullerton, Director SWG3 Charity
🕛 4.30–5.30pm

– From railway sidings and industrial buildings to one of Glasgow’s best-known cultural destinations, SWG3 has evolved alongside the city around it. Learn about the amazing project from those involved and what the future might hold for SWG3 and the surrounding area.

🎟 To learn more and book tickets, visit: https://www.glasgowdoorsopendays.org.uk/events/swg3

SWG3 Doors Open Days

Explore 150+ free buildings, tours, talks and performances across Glasgow, 17-20 Sept 2026. Discover what's behind the city's most fascinating doors.

06/09/2026

📽 Exhibition Highlight: ‘Memories & Matinees: Thomas McGoran's Glasgow’

Step into Glasgow’s cinema-going past through the beautiful drawings and prints of Thomas McGoran, who grew up in the east end of the city in the 1930s and 1940s, and still lives there today.

Now 98, Thomas began working in cinemas as a young schoolboy before becoming a projectionist. His lifelong love of cinema began with a childhood visit to the Annfield on the Gallowgate.

This special exhibition brings together Thomas’s warm, nostalgic and imaginative depictions of old Glasgow picture houses, streets and everyday life, preserving memories of a time when the city was known as a true Cinema City.

Visitors may also recognise Thomas’s work from Glasgow Life Museums, including Provand’s Lordship and Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, and will have the chance to browse his captivating book, A Glasgow Memoir, also available to buy.

Glasgow Building Preservation Trust (GBPT) wholeheartedly thanks Thomas and his family for their generosity in allowing us to display his joyous and beautiful prints for all to see, discuss and savour at our Mini Festival Hub at Edward House.

📍 Mini-Festival Hub @ Edward House, 199 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, G2 3EX
🗓 17–20 Sep, 12–5pm

Click the link for full details: https://www.glasgowdoorsopendays.org.uk/events/memories-matinees-thomas-mcgorans-glasgow-exhibition

🎙 Thomas will also be joined by Lost Glasgow’s Norry Wilson on 20 September for a lively in-conversation event exploring the artist’s life, art, influences and love of Glasgow as part of our GBPT fundraise talks series at our Festival Hub @ ARC. Book tickets via our website.

Image courtesy of Thomas McGoran

Lost Glasgow Glasgow Life presents

05/09/2026

After 43 years of abandonment following storm damage, Springburn Winter Gardens is finally waking up!

A relentless 13-year campaign has finally achieved a funding breakthrough to rescue this iconic piece of Glasgow’s heritage. This Glasgow Doors Open Days Festival, Springburn Winter Gardens Trust (SWGT) will be running a fascinating site tour to find out about the project as it gets underway.

🗓️ Sat 19 September
📍 Springburn Winter Gardens

This event is now fully booked but you can sign up for a waiting list on our website and be next in line should more tickets be made available: https://www.glasgowdoorsopendays.org.uk/

.scot

04/09/2026

🚲 Our partners Bike for Good () have curated four festival-friendly cycle routes to help you explore the city on two wheels this September!

📍This week, we’re highlighting the East Cycle Route, an excellent starting point if you need to build up your confidence on two wheels! Take a trip around Glasgow Green and explore its vibrant surrounding neighbourhoods; from the fascinating history of Bridgeton, to the bustling Barras. Once you have taken in the scenic beauty of the park and riverbank, wheel back in into town and explore the many amazing venues and walks around Trongate, Glasgow’s historic market centre.

Pick up a leaflet or visit our website to see the city-wide festival map: https://www.glasgowdoorsopendays.org.uk/plan-your-visit

03/09/2026

✨ Family-Friendly Highlights: East

Looking for family-friendly days out at this year’s festival? Explore historic buildings, discover Glasgow’s transport history and get creative with hands-on activities across the east of the city!

🧱 The Pipe Factory – A welcoming environment where people of all ages can enjoy a varied programme from ceramic workshops to drawing activities, archival film screenings of footage from the area and a special hard-had tour!

🚌 Bridgeton Bus Garage – Explore an impressive collection of over 130 buses, coaches, commercial vehicles, and fire engines through a guided tour of Bridgeton Bus Garage, a building steeped in transport history.

👻 Provan Hall – Explore 500 years of history and notable characters including royal courtiers, bewitched poets and Titanic survivors. Journey through 16thc rooms, explore formal gardens and watch out for ghosts.

👑 Crownpoint Studios – Through open studios, workshops and markets and events, Crownpoint Studios celebrates the connections, creativity and shared experiences that make Glasgow.

🎟️ A mix of drop-in and ticketed events — check individual listings for details on our website: https://www.glasgowdoorsopendays.org.uk/whats-on

📩 Glasgow Doors Open Days Festival runs 17–20 September, sign up to our newsletter to be the first to hear what’s on! Subscribe here: https://glasgowdoorsopendays.us6.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=2c0e9c0a4afc44b105118bbe3&id=42cba87d21

02/09/2026

🎙 Festival Hub Talk: – 'Mothballed Masterpiece: The Past and Future of St Vincent Street Church' with Fiona Sinclair

Conservation architect Fiona Sinclair explores the importance of ‘Greek’ Thomson’s St Vincent Street Church, its glorious interior and future potential.

St. Vincent Street Church is the last surviving intact church designed by Alexander "Greek" Thomson and which was built for the United Presbyterian Church in 1859 and in use as a place of worship until 2021.

Since then, the Category 'A' listed church has effectively been mothballed while a new use is identified that celebrates its architectural glory and introduces it to a wider audience.

In 2024, for a brief four hours, the church was opened as part of Glasgow Doors Open Days Festival, with hundreds of visitors reminded of its glorious interior and potential for re-use. This year, with access not possible, Sinclair, a Trustee of the Alexander Thomson Society, will attempt to capture the essence of its importance in a short illustrated talk.

🗓 Sun 20 Sep, 11am
📍 Festival Hub @ ARC, 11 Chapel Ln, Glasgow G11 6EW

🎟 Only a handful of tickets remain for this event. Book a free space on our website: https://www.glasgowdoorsopendays.org.uk/events/mothballed-masterpiece-the-past-and-future-of-st-vincent-street-church-with-fiona-sinclair

01/09/2026

East End T’ai Chi have been promoting T’ai chi and Qi Gong for All in Glasgow’s East End for 15 years.

Join them this Glasgow Doors Open Days Festival for an introductory T’ai Chi and Qi Gong session and discover why this millennia-old “moving meditation” is popular worldwide, from teens to those in their 80s.

T’ai Chi is low-impact with a focus on tendon-strengthening so is gentle on the joints while promoting flexibility. T’ai Chi also involves moving very VERY slowly: something we can all benefit from, in our increasingly busy lives.

🗓️ Sun 20 September, sessions throughout the day
📍 9 Fountainwell Drive, G21 1RR

Visit https://www.glasgowdoorsopendays.org.uk/ to see event timings and to book a free space.

’aiChi

31/08/2026