This year’s Byres Hub Community Day took place on Saturday 7th June. Over 300 people joined us over the afternoon at our biggest ever event, celebrating the connections made between School of Health and Wellbeing research groups, community members and third sector organisations.

Welcoming first-time visitors and established partners alike, we provided tours of the Clarice Pears building, refreshments and space to meet new people, chat and build relationships.

Empower Women for Change group craft activities in Byres Hub

Visitors could “ride the Byres Hub subway”, taking part in an escape room-style challenge of race-the-clock activities and games designed around the School’s research themes, sharing knowledge in a fun and accessible way.

Adults and children taking part in a table-top escape room style activity

The lively atmosphere continued through the Connections Marketplace, full of stalls where attendees could spend time with a range of organisations supporting health and wellbeing in Glasgow, and even get hands-on with plant-potting or arts and crafts.

Tabletop activity hooking yellow rubber ducks with a rod

Other highlights included an action-packed martial arts demonstration from Capoeira 4 Scotland, a thought-provoking Virtual Dementia Tour van provided by Home Instead and an uplifting performance from Vocal Dynamics Community Choir.

Vocal Dynamics community choir singing in the Clarice Pears building

A huge thank you to all the contributors and volunteers who helped make the day such a success.

This event was part of the Glasgow Science Festival and WestFest Programmes.

A full list of activities and organisations can be found below:

Escape Room

  • Braille Detective’ Sight Scotland
  • ‘Job Matching’ Jobs and Business Glasgow
  • ‘Neighbourhood Networks’ Social and Public Health Sciences Unit
  • ‘Crack the Brain Code’ Psychology & Neuroscience
  • ‘Can you break into General Practice?’ General Practice and Primary Care
  • ‘The Great Remote Working Heist’ Healthy Working Lives Group
  • ‘Eyes Wide Open – Creating Your Dream Sleep’ Social and Public Health Sciences Unit
  • ‘Seven Days of Self-Care’ COPE Scotland and Byres Hub
  • ‘BSL Challenge – What you do on your holidays’ Byres Hub British Sign Language Café
  • ‘Brain Health Mission’ Alzheimer Scotland
  • ‘Decision Maker’ Health Economics and Health Technology Assessment

Connections Marketplace

Hands on activities

  • Topple the King ‘Giant chess game’
  • ‘Moments that Matter’ with Empower Women for Change
  • ‘Bunting making’ with U3A and Queers Make Glasgow
  • ‘Herb planting’ with the Lairds of Cardonald and Scottish Learning Disabilities Observatory
  • Home Instead’s ‘Virtual Dementia Tour’

Entertainment

  • Capoeira 4 Scotland ‘Afro-Brazilian Art Demo’
  • Vocal Dynamics Community Choir

Exhibitions

  • ‘Art and Nature’ exhibition with Sense Scotland and Sensorial
  • Glasgow’s Health
  • Creative Skills for Neurodivergent Young People with DIFFERabled and Dekko Comics
  • Chance2Change ‘Health n Equality’

First published: 16 June 2025