Please remember to bring your own headphones!
Please note: You will need to bring your own headphones or earbuds
Museum of Stories: Bury Park uses immersive sound design best experienced through headphones or earbuds plugged into your smartphone. Each attendee will need their own. Apart from that the walk is completely free!
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Museum of Stories: Bury Park
Introducing a new kind of museum
Museum of Stories is a new community-led audio walk featuring real people’s stories, launching September 2023 in Bury Park, Luton.
Each story has been pinned to a map, in the place where it happened. All can be experienced by downloading the Museum of Stories app, and taking yourself on a walk around Bury Park. All you need is a smartphone and some earbuds.
The twelve 5-10 minute audio dramas in the Museum were sourced by setting up a phone line, and inviting Bury Park residents past and present to call up and tell us their tales. Contributors were paired with a professional writer to develop their story into a short script, which was then recorded by a cast of community actors, and uploaded to the app.
Museum of Stories is now available in app stores for free. You can experience it solo or with friends at a time of your convenience, no booking needed. Please click the links above to find it in the Google Play and Apple app stores.
Although best experienced in Bury Park, you can listen from anywhere in the world.
Read Ten Lessons from Museum of Stories, a blog post about running large scale community projects by Applied Stories artistic director Fin Kennedy.
Museum of Stories is an Applied Stories project, supported by Arts Council England, Revoluton Arts and Luton Borough Council’s Heritage department.
Media coverage
Luton Today
Luton Today
Luton Today
Click the image to read a double-page feature in Luton Today and watch a short film
BBC News
Luton Today
Luton Today
Click the image to read a feature on BBC News Online
BBC iPlayer
Luton Today
Luton's Deadpool
Click the image to listen to a 6-min radio clip from BBC Three Counties Radio
Luton's Deadpool
Ten Lessons from Museum of Stories
Luton's Deadpool
Click the image to watch a 40-min interview with Museum of Stories' creator Fin Kennedy and the legendary Luton's Deadpool on his YouTube channel!
Ten Lessons from Museum of Stories
Ten Lessons from Museum of Stories
Ten Lessons from Museum of Stories
Click the image to read a deep dive blog post about what we learned about running large scale community projects, by Applied Stories' artistic director Fin Kennedy
FAQs
What do I need to listen to the stories?
Download the free app to your smartphone, then listen through headphones or earbuds. Wired headphones work better than bluetooth.
Where should I listen to the stories?
Museum of Stories is best experienced in Bury Park, Luton. We suggest starting at Alexandra Opticians at 88 Dunstable Road. The app geolocates you and shows you the stories as pins on a map up and down the street. All the stories have Location Notes on their page about where we suggest listening to them. We recommend sitting down for each one and have highlighted benches and cafes in each spot.
Can I listen remotely?
Yes. If you can’t make it to Bury Park select Take me to the Stories > Story List within the app to see all the stories and start listening to them from anywhere.
Is there an order or set route?
No, all the stories are self-contained tales and can be listened to in any order.
Do I have to do them all?
No, you can stop and come back later, or finish listening at home. The stories will still be there!
How long is the walk?
Listening to them all takes about 90 mins but you can do fewer, and either take a break or even come back another day. Each story’s running time is in brackets after its title. In terms of distance, doing all of them requires walking about 1km on flat pavements. The walk will stay online until the end of 2023.
Is it suitable for children?
Although not aimed at kids, all the content is all family friendly. We recommend 10+ listening age. Younger kids are welcome to join in but are unlikely to follow all the stories.
I have one phone between two
If you need to share your phone with someone else who doesn't have one, you will need a headphone splitter so you can plug in two sets. These are a few pounds online or in electrical stores. (Listening through the phone speaker will lose most of the evocative sound design.)
The story keeps re-starting
In the app, geolocation can be toggled on and off with the circular icon at the bottom of the screen in the centre. Switch it off if the story keeps re-starting. We also recommend sitting and listening rather than walking and listening, which can trigger another story.
Are there subtitles?
Yes, each story has the full transcript on its page below the credits. Scroll down to follow as you listen.
Are the stories available in languages other than English?
Sadly not yet - this literally doubles the budget so is something we are working towards in future versions.
I have a story about Bury Park, can I submit it?
Yes, and we would love to hear it! The phone line remains open, the 24/7 voicemail can be reached by calling 01582 250 444. This number is also in the Get Involved section of the app.
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