Created by locally based company, Virtual360toursglos, it uses modern technology to shed new light on this 1,000-year-old sacred space.
The virtual tour is now available on the Cathedral’s website, allowing users to journey through almost every corner of this remarkable building. In addition to well-known spaces such as the Nave, Quire and Lady Chapel, the virtual tour delves into some of the more behind-the-scenes locations such as the medieval Library, iconic Tower and subterranean Crypt.
The tour has been created by Virtual360toursglos, a locally based company which was set up by Scott Currie almost six years ago. Since then, Scott has created countless tours for estate agents, hotels, wedding venues and showrooms, and now he has added a cathedral to the list. To create the virtual tour, Scott used state-of-the-art cameras which sync with satellites to precisely pinpoint a location. The cameras were operated using a tablet, spinning 360 degrees to capture over one million pixels at each location. This process was repeated over 850 times to cover the depth and breadth of Gloucester Cathedral! The images were then knitted together to create a digital floor plan, with information tags added throughout to bring the space to life.
It is hoped that the virtual tour will have a wide range of benefits. As well as giving people an idea of what to expect before they visit, it will also allow those who can’t visit in person to virtually step inside this sacred space. Whilst there is level access throughout the ground level of the Cathedral, some places – such as the Library, Tower and Tribune Gallery – can only be accessed via spiral staircase. The virtual tour will allow everyone to navigate through these areas at their own pace, from wherever they are in the world.
Scott Currie, Founder of Virtual360toursglos, said:
“Having lived in Gloucester for almost 16 years, I have long been aware of the importance and beauty of the Cathedral. Last summer, I showed some family members around who were visiting from Canada, and they absolutely loved it. This inspired me to approach the team to see whether they would be interested in working together to create a new virtual tour. It took around seven visits to complete, and I hope the end result does justice to the sheer scale and beauty of our wonderful Cathedral.”
Lorna Giles, Head of Visitor Experience at Gloucester Cathedral, added:
“We are hugely grateful to Scott and Virtual360toursglos for creating this spectacular new virtual tour for us. As well as inspiring people to come and visit us in future, it is amazing to see how modern technology can open up this sacred space to those who perhaps aren’t able to discover it in person. We very much hope that everyone will enjoy using this wonderful new resource.”
The virtual tour can be found at https://gloucestercathedral.org.uk/visit/virtual-tour
