Durham is a uniquely beautiful and historic place to live and study. Now you can explore its past with a new interactive app.
With expert input from Professor Adrian Green from our History department, a free app, named Durham History Hunt, has been created to enable people to explore both familiar and lesser known parts.What’s to see?
The app has 26 points of interest scattered across the city and delves into the local history. There will be tales of heroes and villains, ducks and dragons, and of kings and bishops and much more.
One of the stops includes an augmented reality 3D recreation of the much loved police box that used to sit in Durham’s picturesque Market Place between 1932 and 1975 – from which police officers would direct traffic.
The 3D model of the police box has been created by the augmented reality company Vector76. They based the model on old black and white photographs and took advice from retired police officers, nearby Beamish Museum and residents of Durham who can remember it being there.
Collaborative working
The app has been made possible as part of a partnership project called Durham Digitale, which has been led by our Library and Collections Team and Business School.
The app sits on a platform developed by County Durham based company The Locale, which is used by many towns and cities across the country helping residents and visitors access real time information about retail and hospitality. This is the first time the Locale platform has been used to support an augmented reality game.
The content for the app has been developed by a specially created team; local artist Juliet Percival, North East England Blue Badge Tourist Guide Jan Williams and Durham resident Carlo Viglianisi, design company Curious12, Vector76 and Dave Sharp.
The Durham History Hunt app is part of Durham Digitale phase 1, funded by Research England. We value partnership working, and as part of Culture Durham, are supporting the bid for Durham city and county to be UK City of Culture 2025.
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