Boro Beats: Art, Heritage & Urban Pulse Audio Adventure

Explore Middlesbrough at your own pace

Steel giants once ruled Middlesbrough's skyline, but beneath their shadows lie secrets even locals whisper about. Hidden rebellions, sudden innovation, and art born from hardship pulse through these streets.

Uncover them all with this self-guided audio journey that weaves you through galleries, museums, and the city's forgotten corners. Follow winding paths to stories you'd never spot on a postcard.

Why did a storm of controversy explode around a simple exhibition at the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art? What rare artifact in Dorman Museum holds the key to a century-old unsolved mystery? Who left midnight messages carved into the stone outside BBC Radio Tees and why were they quickly erased?

Photo: Cristobal Martinez, Unsplash

Tour details

• Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes, entirely at your own pace
• Distance: around 4.8 km (3.0 miles)
• Stops: 10 landmarks, including Middlesbrough Town Hall, St John's Church, Middlesbrough, Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art
• Audio: up to 25 minutes of narration
• Starts at: Middlesbrough Town Hall

Map data by Mapbox and OpenStreetMap contributors

How it works

• Book here and a redemption code arrives by email within minutes.
• Download the free AudaTours app on your phone and enter the code.
• Download the tour once and the whole thing works offline.
• Walk to the first stop and press play. The audio for each landmark starts automatically as you approach it, so your phone can stay in your pocket.

There is no fixed date and no start time. The date you pick at checkout does not matter, and the tour stays on your phone permanently, so you can use it whenever you next visit and walk it again as often as you like.

What is included

• Professionally narrated audio that plays automatically at each stop
• An interactive map showing the walking route between landmarks
• Full offline access once downloaded, so you need no data or signal
• Freedom to start, pause and resume whenever you like
• Lifetime access - your code never expires

Where you will stop

• Middlesbrough Town Hall
• St John's Church, Middlesbrough
• Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art
• Centre North East
• BBC Radio Tees
• The Northern School of Art
• Linthorpe Road
• Albert Park, Middlesbrough
• Dorman Museum
• Sacred Heart Church, Middlesbrough

Image: AudaTours

What is AudaTours?

AudaTours turns a walk through a city into a story. Our guides bring landmarks to life with the history, the scandals and the detail you would never get from a plaque.

• Immersive: real stories about the places in front of you, not a dry commentary
• Offline: download once and use it with no data, anywhere
• At your own pace: start, pause and resume whenever you want
• Accurate: every story is built from verified historical sources and checked before release

Good to know

• This is a self-guided audio tour on your own phone. There is no in-person guide.
• It does not include entry to any building or site along the route.
• The landmarks on the tour are not affiliated with AudaTours.
• You need a smartphone with Android 7.0 or later, or iOS 16 or later.
• Bring headphones and start with a charged phone.

Who it suits

Solo travellers, couples, families and small groups who would rather explore on their own schedule than follow a guide and a fixed departure time. It suits a first visit, and it suits anyone who has already seen the famous sights and wants to know what actually happened in them.

Image credits

Photos: Cristobal Martinez, Michael Coltman (Unsplash); AudaTours.