The Hidden Tourist Sites of Birmingham

Perhaps surprisingly Birmingham does have acity centre. It is another popular meeting place
castle and a few truly ancient buildings alongside aand is often used as a venue for outdoor
lot of other attractions for visitors to see. Theconcerts and events.
image of Birmingham as a dull industrialised cityThe jewel in the crown of Birmingham's museums
dominated by the car is simply no longer true.has to be the Birmingham Museum and Art
Gone are the crumbling factories, warehouses andGallery, which is on Chamberlain Square behind the
monstrous concrete blocks, which have beenTown Hall. The Art Gallery has the largest
replaced with modern and stylish buildings and nowcollection of pre-Raphaelite paintings in the world,
form the bedrock of a rejuvenated and vibrantalongside Old Masters and Impressionists. The
city. Birmingham has also made the most of thepre-Raphaelite collection includes works by: Ford
heritage it does owe to the industrial age, whichMaddox Brown, Burne-Jones, Rossetti, Millais and
alongside the introduction and development ofHolman Hunt. The Museum itself houses
exciting new attractions, gives visitors to the cityarchaeological exhibitions as well as natural and
plenty to choose from.social history displays. The Museum of the
One of the countries, as well as Birmingham's, topJewellery Quarter is exactly as the name implies.
tourist attractions is Cadbury World, which tellsHoused in what was the Smith & Pepper
the story of chocolate in the UK and the Cadburyjewellery factory on Vyse Street, it provides a
Company in Birmingham. Cadbury World is suitablesnap-shot of working conditions and practices
for all ages, and is both fun and educational. Partaround the middle of the 20th century. Many of
of the visit is to go on the tour of the factory,the machinery and tools that were in use when
some of which is walked and for other partsthe factory closed down pre-date the 20th
you're transported around in small vehicles along acentury, with some artefacts on display going
programmed route. As well as there being aback 200 years.
Cadbury shop to visit there are 'free' samples asAston Hall is one of the city's older buildings; it is
you go around on the tour. The city has aknown that a manor has been on this site since
Birmingham Railway Museum at Tyseley, which1386. The present 400 year old mansion sits in 21
has vintage steam locomotives and a locomotivehectares of parkland next to Aston Villa football
shed dating back to 1908. You can also organise aclub and has some fine Jacobean plasterwork and
trip by steam train from Birmingham toa 120m Long Gallery decorated with 17th century
Stratford-Upon-Avon.tapestries. On its outside walls you can still see
The ThinkTank Museum, at Millennium Point is thethe marks left by bullets and cannonballs from the
location for the city's Science museum whichEnglish Civil War. Owned by Matthew Boulton, a
includes a Planetarium. The Barber Institute of Finemember of the Lunar Society, Soho House was
Arts is in the Birmingham University campus. Itthe first centrally heated home in the country as
won the Gallery of the Year award in 2004 andwell as being a hot-house of ideas in the industrial
apart from displaying works of art is used forrevolution! Sarehole Mill, in the suburb of Hall
musical concerts. A less likely place thanGreen, is popular as a museum to show how a
Birmingham to find a Sea Life Centre is hard tomill would have operated and because of its
imagine. However, behind the ICC, at Brindleyconnection with J R Tolkein, author of The Lord
Place is the National Sea Life Centre. Its 60of the Rings and the Hobbit.
displays cover all marine life from Sharks toWhilst almost hidden away in the suburb of the
Jellyfish, as well as some mammals such as Saesame name is Birmingham's Weoley Castle. In
Otters.truth not much remains of what was really more
Owned by the National Trust, Birmingham hasof a fortified 13th century moated manor house.
preserved some Back-to-Back Houses, on HurstHowever, excavations have shown evidence of
Street, from the 19th century showing how thean earlier 11th century castle on the site. Selly
workers in the early industrial revolution wouldManor and Blakesley Hall are two of Birmingham's
have lived. The canals were the motorways ofolder buildings that visitors may well find
the early industrial revolution and Birmingham sitsinteresting. Finally, you will need to contact the
at the heart of the regions network of canals.Museums Collection Centre to arrange a visit, but
With more kilometres of canals than Venice, thereif you're fortunate enough for them to have an
are plenty of walks and guided tours along them.open day when you can be there, you'll see a
The best starting point is to go to the Gas Streetfascinating collection of items that periodically
Basin, behind the ICC and NIA. Completelyappear in the city's various museums.
revamped in the 1990s Victoria Square, in frontMoving not too far outside of the city there are
of the Town Hall, is now a modern piazza stylemany nearby attractions. At Solihull is the National
meeting place in the city. The first time they'reMotorcycle Museum, whilst historic Warwick Castle
seen, The Iron Man and the Floozie in the Jacuzzican be reached in about 45 minutes as can
are always certain to be the topic ofStratford-Upon-Avon, with all its associations and
conversation. Centenary Square, in front of thehistory of William Shakespeare and the
ICC, Symphony Hall and the Repertory TheatreShakespeare Theatre.
on Broad Street, is the newest public space in the