Staying with a theme of being inside Blantyre building, this next one needs no introduction. There was hardly a child in Blantyre who didn’t know what this room was….though this photo IS a little brighter than they may be used to.
This is the Dark Viewing Gallery in the David Livingstone Centre. Pictured in 1958, some 62 years ago, this was a popular exhibit in the museum. Being able to go into the darkness and press those buttons and see the tableaux light up in each scene was thrilling to children and adults alike!
During the recent renovation the tableaux were removed for the first time since the 1920s and cleaned, restoring where required, for they will form part of the exhibit again. When the walls behind were ripped out, it was seen that the museum builders in the mid 1920’s had used the existing bed recesses in the wall to form the inlaid galleries.
