Announcing: A Time Machine in Your Pocket

A New VR attraction that lets you experience Gloucester as you’ve never seen it before! 

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Visit Gloucester are excited to announce new VR experience, 'BackWrd’, celebrating the rich history of the City! This experience will take you on a journey through some of Gloucester finest sites, as they looked in the distant past. 

Special Projects Co-ordinator at Visit Gloucester, Avril Phoil, says “People are always asking me, they say ‘Avril, Avril, Gloucester's history is so rich - I wish I could explore it for myself.' Well, we've listened, and we've worked hard to build this cutting-edge attraction that will get everyone inside the city’s history for real!” 

With the BackWrd app, simply hold up your phone and you will be able to walk through the City and see what it looked like either 10 years, 7 years, or 3 years ago, live on your screen! Become immersed in iconic sites like the old Kings Square, Debenhams, the old bus station, and much more! 

Vintage Reality, the company behind this initiative, says “We are really looking forward to working with Visit Gloucester on this project and hope you are ready to revisit these great places!” 

Walk in previous generations' footsteps as you leap across the stepping stones or explore the underground conveniences under Kings Square. Explore how Gloucestrians used to shop at the old Primark. Marvel at how different things were back in the midst of a whole decade ago.

After extensive public consultation, the project arrived at the most popular period in Gloucester's amazing story.  Heritage Manager for LA-based Vintage Reality, Tim Machin, said "we asked people if they wanted to explore recent history of 2022 onwards or the ancient 'Glourassic' period of 2013-2020. People's passion for 2013 really shone through. We were asked about 'Romans', 'Saxons' and some sort of 'Civil War', but we've never heard of them and thought it must be some obscure local folklore." 

This incredible experience will go live on Virtual Reality Day on November 18 2023. Stay tuned for more details. In the meantime, why not check out all the other amazing Things To Do in Gloucester.