Glasgow's love affair with street art is getting a fresh chapter on Sauchiehall Street. The Sauchiehall Street Culture and Heritage District — a partnership between Glasgow Life, Glasgow City Council, Glasgow Film Theatre, Scottish Ensemble, and Articulate Cultural Trust — is delivering a programme of public art, heritage events, and community installations along one of the city's most storied thoroughfares. It's free, it's walkable, and it runs until December 2027.

A street reborn through culture

Sauchiehall Street has had a tough run. Fires, high vacancy rates, and economic decline left one of Glasgow's most famous roads looking bruised. But a £2.3 million investment from the National Lottery Heritage Fund is helping to turn things around through culture and heritage-led regeneration.

The project's "Animating Sauchiehall Street" strand brings outdoor installations, public art, and heritage-led events to the street. The programme runs along Sauchiehall Street and its adjacent roads — Bath Street, Renfrew Street, and the Garnethill community — bookended by the Mitchell Library at one end and the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall at the other.

What you'll find

Glasgow already boasts over 200 large-scale murals across the city, many internationally recognised. The City Centre Mural Trail, managed by Glasgow City Council, provides a well-established framework — and now the SSCHD programme is layering new public artworks and installations onto the Sauchiehall Street stretch.

Among the artists with connections to the broader Glasgow mural scene is Smug, the Australian-born, Glasgow-based muralist renowned for his photorealistic style. His portrait of St Mungo on High Street is one of the most photographed murals in Scotland. His recent work — Make Time For What Matters at The Social Hub in Merchant City — was developed through community consultations and speaks to the same spirit of culture-led renewal now taking root on Sauchiehall Street.

"Glasgow has always had a strong graffiti and street art culture. It's raw, expressive, and usually speaks to what's going on in society," Smug told Secret Glasgow. "Murals build on that graffiti tradition but also offer a different kind of platform. They allow for bigger, bolder statements that can speak to a wide audience."

How to explore

The area is entirely free to wander. Start at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall steps and head west along Sauchiehall Street towards the Mitchell Library. Allow around 90 minutes at a relaxed pace, with stops for the public artworks, the SSCHD project space at Edward House, and the exhibitions and events running throughout the programme.

The Glasgow City Centre Mural Trail app and printed maps — available free at tourist centres and libraries — can help you spot nearby murals beyond the Sauchiehall Street area.

Top tip: Early morning light is best for photographs, and weekdays are quieter than weekends. Wear comfortable shoes — you'll cover a couple of kilometres on a mix of pavement and cobbles.

While you're there

A short walk south takes you to the Merchant City, where Smug's new work and several other pieces sit within the established mural trail. The Trongate area has clusters of smaller murals tucked into alleyways, and the Buchanan Street area has several large-scale works.

The Lighthouse — Scotland's Centre for Design and Architecture — is a short detour and offers rotating exhibitions with rooftop views across the city.

The bigger picture

What's happening on Sauchiehall Street is part of something larger. Glasgow's mural movement, which began in the 1980s as a way to reclaim public space during economic hardship, has grown into a globally recognised cultural asset. The city now uses public art not just for decoration, but as a deliberate tool for regeneration.

As artist Craig McCorquodale, who recently completed a residency on Sauchiehall Street through the SSCHD programme, told the Herald: "Two things can be true at once. Sauchiehall Street is facing a lot of challenges right now and people feel angry and disaffected by it. But at the same time, people also have very rich memories of it and they matter too."

Those memories — and the new art celebrating them — are there to be discovered. All you need is a pair of walking shoes and a sense of curiosity.