The "Great Blondin" was a French trapeze artist who crossed Edgbaston Reservoir on a tightrope on 6 September 1873. This legendary feat is celebrated by a sculpture on the central reservation of Ladywood Middleway.

Created by John Richardson in 1995, the three-metre-high sculpture is a caricature of the Great Blondin. It is made from patinated and metallised welded-steel plates and stands on a 4.5-metre-high pedestal that carries a sign to the local shops.

The iron horse sculpture at New Street Station was created by Kevin Atherton in 1987. It is one of twelve horse sculptures of slightly varying shapes and sizes on the Birmingham and Wolverhampton line. These sculptures symbolise the earliest steam locomotives which were called "iron horses"

This bust of Josiah Mason ("Big Joe") stands on a traffic roundabout at the junction of Chester Road and Orphanage Road in Erdington. Made by William Bloye in 1951, it is a bronze cast of a Victorian marble carved by Francis Williamson in the 1870's.

Josiah Mason (1795-1881) was a pen-maker and a partner in the Elkington silver electro-plating works. Born a pauper, he became immensely wealthy, and not only built almshouses and an orphanage in Erdington but also endowed Mason Science College: the forerunner of Birmingham University.