Welcome to the new Alternative Guides to Middlesbrough. The guides are written by people who know Middlesbrough featuring the great advice of people like you. This is an ongoing project.
Alternative Guide: Heritage at its Best - Out & About with History
For those wannabe historians and heritage aficionados out there, your trip here is not complete without a visit to some must-see museums and iconic buildings.
Stop off at the Captain Cook Birthplace Museum at Stewart Park in Marton, to discover the lands Cook visited, explore fascinating galleries and collections. Be sure to visit the gift shop to pick up your own model HMBark Endeavour or a replica brass sextant. To extend your adventure, drive the 70-mile Captain Cook trail, visiting key locations from our hero’s life, including the Schoolroom Museum in Great Ayton, and the Port of Whitby from where Cook made his famous sea voyages.
Next we head back into town for another history extravaganza at the Dorman Museum. Pay your respects at the Boer War Memorial. Experience life in a bomb shelter, learn how our planet came to be in the ‘Earth in Space’ gallery and marvel at the fascinating historic artifacts from the local area and beyond.
Our next stop is a move to the contemporary, at mima, the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art. Contemplate acclaimed works of art in this striking space designed by internationally renowned Erick van Egeraat Associated Architects. Exhibitions change quarterly and you can pick up an unusual gift for that difficult to buy for relative at the mima shop.
Middlesbrough is also home to a number of spectacular buildings of worship, reflecting both its traditional routes and its cultural diversity. Places of interest include the modern Middlesbrough Cathedral in Coulby Newham, the superb marble Hindu Temple in North Ormesby and the Jamia Mosque in central Middlesbrough.
Alternative Guide: Heritage at its Best - Themed Trails
Middlesbrough Town Centre is home to a multitude of attractions that reflect its industrial heritage and modern influences. Feeling fit? Then leave the car behind and let’s go on a walkabout. The sure-fire way to not miss a thing is to use Middlesbrough’s themed trails as your personal tour guide.
The Art and Architecture trail will take you to modern pieces of art including the famous Bottle of Notes, a towering and graceful bottle structure made entirely of handwriting; and Spectra-txt, a 10 metre-high shiny tower that responds to your text messages. The trail also leads you to architectural wonders such as the Victorian Town Hall that features four lifesized statues on its facade representing music, painting, literature and commerce.
The Commerce and Industry trail takes you to Middlesbrough’s iconic Transporter Bridge, built in the early 1900s and featured in sensations such as Auf Wiedersehen Pet and Billy Elliot. With a moving carriage suspended beneath, you’ve just got to have a go!
Exchange Square is another feature on the Industry Trail, once the centre of commerce and industry for the town. It hosts an array of impressive Victorian buildings and 11 eye-catching carved sandstone heads, modelled on local 19th Century dignitaries and the only remains of the former Royal Exchange building that was demolished in 1985.
The town’s railway station is an additional point of interest, a Grade II listed building built in 1877. The arrival of the ‘iron horse’ initiated massive commercial growth, created new industrial opportunities and undoubtedly shaped the townscape as we know it today.
Download Alternative Guide: Heritage at its Best and trails
Alternative Guide: Heritage at its Best
Art and Architecture Trail Map
Commerce and Industry Trail Map
Return to Alternative Guides to Middlesbrough - Introduction
Alternative Guides to Middlesbrough - Introduction with links to additional guides
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