Birmingham, England: A Guide to the Workshop of the World

Chamberlain Square. (Photo: Mat Fascione, CC BY-SA 2.0)

Birmingham, in the West Midlands, is Britain's second-largest city. In Victorian times it was the "City of a Thousand Trades" and the "Workshop of the World"; today Brum, as locals call it, is enjoying a revival as a destination for shopping and culture, with a lively nightlife, strong grassroots art, music, literature and food, and green parks and countryside close by.

Understand

A medieval market town in Warwickshire, Birmingham grew in the 18th century with the Midlands Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution, producing innovations that helped lay the foundations of modern industry. Its many trades needed transport, and the result was a vast canal network, more miles of canal than Venice or Amsterdam, along with grand warehouses, offices, stations and civic buildings.

The Blitz destroyed much of the centre, and it was rebuilt quickly and cheaply in brutalist concrete. Since the 1990s the city has been remaking itself: much of the post-war building has gone, most of the centre is pedestrianized, and the canals have been cleaned up into pleasant towpath walks.

Birmingham’s canals. (Photo: Bryn Holmes, CC BY-SA 2.0)

Birmingham's associations run from HP Sauce, Cadbury's, the Spitfire and the Mini to the Lunar Society, whose members included James Watt and Matthew Boulton. Its music includes Black Sabbath, UB40, Duran Duran, Napalm Death and The Beat, and the BBC drama Peaky Blinders has brought the city new attention. Its writers include J. R. R. Tolkien; Washington Irving wrote Rip Van Winkle while staying here with his sister's family, and Arthur Conan Doyle bought a violin in Sherlock Street as a medical student.

Getting around

The city has swallowed many former towns and villages, so an address "in Birmingham" can be far from the centre, which is why suburbs are usually named. Birmingham New Street, linked to the Grand Central and Bullring shopping centres, is the main station, with direct trains to every major British city; Moor Street and Snow Hill are the other central stations. Victoria Square is the very centre. A pleasant walk runs from the International Convention Centre and Symphony Hall past the Library of Birmingham in Centenary Square to the Bullring in about twenty minutes.

The centre falls into distinct areas: the Core, northwest of New Street, with its surviving pre-war buildings along New Street and Colmore Row; Westside, with canals, the convention centre, Brindleyplace and The Mailbox; Eastside, a former industrial area being redeveloped; Southside, with the Gay Village and the Chinese Quarter; Digbeth, a creative hub with the Irish Quarter; and the Jewellery Quarter, whose workshops still make 40% of the UK's jewellery and which keeps the 19th-century look other industrial districts lost. Beyond the centre, Aston has Aston Hall and Aston Villa, Edgbaston the cricket ground and the University of Birmingham, and Kings Heath a busy weekend scene.

The Library of Birmingham. (Photo: BlueandWhiteStripes, CC BY-SA 4.0)

What to see

Museums. The Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery has local history and a large collection of Pre-Raphaelite paintings. Aston Hall is a restored Jacobean mansion of 1618–1635 that still bears cannon damage from the English Civil War. The Barber Institute is a small gallery with an excellent collection, the IKON Gallery shows contemporary art, and Thinktank is a hands-on science museum. Soho House was the elegant home of the industrial pioneer Matthew Boulton, and Sarehole Mill, built in 1765, is one of the more than fifty water mills Birmingham once had.

Industrial heritage. The National Trust's Back to Backs are the city's last surviving court of cramped 19th-century working-class houses, and the Coffin Works tells the story of a Jewellery Quarter factory. At Cadbury World in Bournville you can tour the chocolate factory, and Jaguar offers tours of its Castle Bromwich plant; Land Rover's main plant is in nearby Solihull.

The Back to Backs. (Photo: NotFromUtrecht, CC BY-SA 3.0)

The stamp room of the Coffin Works. (Photo: MDcoffins, CC BY-SA 4.0)

Churches and buildings. St Philip's Cathedral (1709–1715), built as a parish church; the Catholic St Chad's Cathedral (1841); St Martin in the Bull Ring, the parish church; and the gold-roofed Peace Pagoda. Architecture ranges from The Old Crown in Deritend, which claims to be the oldest building in the city, and Tudor Blakesley Hall (1590), to the red brick and terracotta of Victorian Newhall Street, the round Rotunda, the 1925 Hall of Memory to the 12,320 Birmingham people killed in the First World War, and the new Library of Birmingham, opened in 2013.

St Philip’s Cathedral. (Photo: The wub, CC BY-SA 4.0)

St Martin in the Bull Ring. (Photo: Philip Halling, CC BY-SA 2.0)

Parks. For a big city the countryside is close. Sutton Park is one of the largest urban parks in Europe, and the canal towpaths lead out of the centre.

Sutton Park. (Photo: Lewis Clarke, CC BY-SA 2.0)

Do

Something is on most nights: the live music scene is varied, the Birmingham Jazz Festival runs in July, and Symphony Hall, the Hippodrome, the Repertory Theatre and the Midlands Arts Centre cover classical music and theatre. The Arena and the convention centres host some of the biggest events in the country. For sport, Aston Villa, one of England's more successful football clubs, plays at Villa Park; Birmingham City at St Andrew's; West Bromwich Albion at The Hawthorns; and Warwickshire plays county cricket at Edgbaston.

The Birmingham Hippodrome. (Photo: Birmingham Hippodrome, CC BY-SA 4.0)

Sources

• "Birmingham" from Wikivoyage, by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changed: rewritten in hubnx's own words and condensed; listings, addresses, prices, opening hours and phone numbers left out; each photo under its own licence, credited in its caption. This page is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.