Museums & Family Attractions in Birmingham
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There are six theatres in the city centre: the Alexandra, Old Rep and Hippodrome in Southside, the Rep and Crescent in the Convention Quarter and the Old Joint Stock in the Business Quarter. There are also three suburban community theatres: Hall Green Little Theatre, Sutton Arts Theatre and Highbury Little Theatre.
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery
The Birmingham Museum, on Chamberlain Square in the Business Quarter, was built as an extension to the Council House in 1881-85. The main facade incorporates the Big Brum clocktower and a double portico crowned by a triangular pediment with sculptural reliefs.
The museum is divided into six sections: antiquities, applied art, coins & medals, ethnography, local history and social history.
Antiquities contains archaeological finds from the ancient world; applied arts contains ceramics, metalwork, jewellery & early industrial goods; coins & medals contains collections minted by the Soho, Kings Norton and Birmingham Mints.
Ethnography features artefacts from other cultures, particularly Asian & African; local history is dedicated to the global history of Birmingham; and social history contains military insignia, gas marks, ration books and other everyday objects from the recent past.
The building also contains the Birmingham Art Gallery which includes major works by the Old Masters, Impressionists and pre-Raphaelites.
Entrance to the museum, which is owned by Birmingham City Council, is usually free but there may be a charge for some exhibitions.
Links: Guide Business Quarter Birmingham Museum Website
Aston Hall Museum is housed in a Jacobean manor built on high ground in Aston Park by Sir Thomas Holte between 1618 and 1638.
The hall, now owned by Birmingham City Council, is entered through a central doorway whose entablature, supported by Doric columns, bears the inscription "1618".
The ceiling of the Reception Hall is decorated with plaster moulds and its walls with finely-carved oak panelling. The Reception Hall leads directly to the Great Hall which features Jacobean panelling and an elaborately carved strapwork staircase with an oak balustrade.
The first floor contains the Great Dining Room with a Jacobean plaster ceiling and monumental fireplace. Charles I and Queen Henrietta Maria spent the night of 18 October 1642 in the neighbouring room which features original Van Dyck portraits of the royal pair and a walnut cabinet, a gift to their host Sir Thomas Holte.
The first floor also contains a 37-metre Long Gallery with a strapwork ceiling, oak panelling & monumental Jacobean fireplace.
The displays include period furniture, paintings, textiles and metalwork from collections owned by Birmingham City Council.
The museum also contains a shop, cafe, activity rooms and an exhibition space. It is generally only open during the summer and is always closed whenever Aston Villa play weekend home matches.
Admission is usually free although a charge may be made for some exhibitions and events. Links: Guide Aston Birmingham Museum Website
Blakesley Hall, on Blakesley Road in Yardley, is a half-timbered farmhouse (circa 1590) that was converted into a museum by Birmingham City Council in 1932.
It was refurbished in the 1970's according to an an inventory dated 1684 which lists the Long Table in the Great Hall. The Great & Little Parlours were reinstated & the original herringbone floor preserved.
The upper floors contain the Long Gallery & several bedchambers, one of which features the Moorish Mural, a painted wall decoration (circa 1590) which had been plastered-over and was only rediscovered when the plaster was shattered by a wartime bomb. Another bedroom has been refurbished in the style of the painted chamber.
The house stands in a traditional walled orchard and herb garden that contains a visitor centre with a cafe, shop and exhibition hall.
The grounds also contain the stocks that once stood outside Sutton Coldfield Town Hall and the Gilbertstone, an Ice Age Erratic supposedly rolled to Yardley by Gilbert the Giant.
A converted 17th century barn provides additional facilities for schoolchildren.
Blakesley Hall is generally closed during the winter. Admission is free although a charge may be made for certain events and exhibitions.
Links: Guide Yardley Birmingham Museum Website
Soho House Museum is located on Soho Avenue in west Birmingham. Soho House was the home of the pioneer industrialist Mathew Boulton from 1766 until his death in 1809.
The house, which had been a police hostel, was purchased by Birmingham City Council in 1995. It contains period furnishings, including some of Boulton's own furniture.
The dining room has been furnished in the style of the 1790's. The displays include coins produced by the Soho Mint and decorative metal objects made at the Soho Manufactory, including silver & plate, buttons & buckles, gilded-ormolu clocks & candelabra.
There is also a section dedicated to the Lunar Society: an influential group of scientists, industrialists & natural philosophers who met each lunar month, sometimes at Soho House, and whose members included Josiah Wedgwood, Joseph Priestley & James Watt.
The house contains the first hypocaust heating system installed in England since the Roman Occupation. The gardens have been landscaped & replanted using 18th century seed lists.
Soho House is only open to the general public between April and November. Admission is free. The facilities include a cafe, shop and car park.
Links: Soho Guide Birmingham Museum Website
The Museum of the Jewellery Quarter is on Vyse Street in the former premises of Smith & Pepper: a jewellery workshop that opened in 1891 and closed ninety years later in 1981, having barely changed throughout this entire period.
When it closed, the jeweller's stamps, tools and machinery were left in situ and the original Victorian decor was preserved.
The premises were later acquired by Birmingham City Council and converted into a museum dedicated to the history of the Jewellery Quarter and its metal-working trades. Visitors may tour the premises and watch live demonstrations of traditional jeweller's skills.
There is a tearoom and a shop that stocks a vast range of locally-crafted jewellery.
The museum forms part of the European Route of Industrial Heritage which includes 830 sites in 29 European countries. Admission is free.
Guide Jewellery Quarter Birmingham Museum Website
Sarehole Mill is an historic water mill located in the Shire Country Park off Cole Bank Road in Hall Green. It is now a museum owned by Birmingham City Council.
The mill was built in 1765 on the site of an earlier 16th century mill, once used by Mathew Boulton for rolling metal. It is powered by water stored in a millpond fed by the River Cole.
The mill possesses a south wheel and a north wheel. Only the south wheel, an overshot made of elm & cast iron, still functions.
The mill is powered by
water channelled from the pond through a sluice gate. The weight of the
water falling into buckets on the top side of the wheel causes it to
turn.
The number of revolutions per minute is increased from 4 to 120 by an
ingenious system of gears.
The mill was used to grind corn, cutlery, swords & gun barrels. Its chimney was added in 1855 when steam power was introduced.
The mill is only open to the general public between April and November. Admission is free. The machinery and flour-making process are demonstrated on special days. The facilities include a cafe, shop and visitor car park.
The museum also contains displays dedicated to J R R Tolkien, the author of Lord of the Rings, who lived within 300 yards of the mill between the ages of 4 and 8 and who was fascinated by its pond and machinery. Indeed, the fictional Hobbiton Village is believed to be a fantasy version of Sarehole Mill which forms part of the Tolkien Trail.
An annual Tolkien weekend is held in May at the mill, in the adjoining meadow and on the nearby Sarehole Recreation Ground
Links: Hall Green Guide Birmingham Museum Website
Weoley Castle is located on Alwold Road in Weoley. It is the ruin of a fortified mediaeval manor set in parkland which may viewed from a platform that is only open on weekends and Bank Holidays between March and November.
Visitors will see the dry moats and fishponds, the remains of a bakehouse and chapel, and the ruined gatehouse whose stone walls still bear the grooves that once carried the drawbridge.
The ruin is a Scheduled Ancient Monument owned by Birmingham City Council. Admission to the viewing platform is free. There is limited roadside parking.
Links: Guide Weoley Birmingham Museum Website
The Lapworth Geology Museum is housed in the Aston Webb building on the Edgbaston campus of the University of Birmingham. It is named after Charles Lapworth (1842-1920), the first professor of Geology at Mason Science College, a forerunner of the university.
The museum is divided into five sections: palaeontology, maps, historical collections, minerals & archives.
Palaeontology contains flora, fauna, vertebrate & invertebrate fossils; the maps section contains geological maps including 1st-edition survey maps with horizontal & vertical sections.
The historical collections include the Shaw Seismograph invented by John Shaw (1873-1948) for the detection of horizontal ground motion and three-dimensional models of coal deposits made by Thomas Sopwith in 1840.
The mineral collections include 12,000 specimens collected abroad and from mines in Shropshire, Cornwall and Cumbria; the archives contain academic papers, including research by Charles Lapworth. Admission is free.
Guide University & Environs Lapworth Geology Museum Website
The Pen Room is in the Argent Centre, a converted Victorian pen factory at the corner of Frederick Street and Legge Road in the Jewellery Quarter.
The Pen Room is dedicated to the history of the Birmingham pen trade; it is a registered charity managed by the Birmingham Pen Trade Heritage Association.
The pen trade boomed after the dip pen, which replaced the quill, was invented in Birmingham in the early 1800's. The dip pen consisted of a steel nib with capillary channels mounted on a wooden holder.
Local manufacturers constantly improved the design in order to achieve cheaper mass production. By the early 1900s, more than 1.5 billion dip pens (over half the world's supply) were manufactured in Birmingham. However, the trade dwindled after the ballpoint and fountain pen were invented in the 1950's.
The Pen Room displays a variety of pens, nibs and other writing equipment including braille, quills, slates and typewriters. Visitors can manufacture their own steel pen using an original factory press. Admission is free.
Guide Jewellery Quarter Pen Room Website
Aston Manor Road Transport Museum
Aston Manor Road Transport Museum is located in a former tram depot on Witton Lane in Aston. The depot was built in red-brick in 1882. A stone inscription beneath the central gable reads: "Borough of Aston Manor Tramways Depot".
The trams entered through four gates: the two outer gates have been preserved whereas the two central gates have been replaced by windows.
The overhead tram wires have been removed but their casements are still visible. The design of the central roof section differs from the side sections since part of the original roof was destroyed in the Birmingham Blitz.
The depot closed in 1953 and became a car showroom before it was abandoned and left derelict. It was restored in the late 1980's by volunteers who repaired the roof & rediscovered the tram lines that had been buried in concrete.
The depot is now a road transport museum that specialises in buses, trams and commercial vehicles that were either used or manufactured in the Midlands.
The oldest exhibit is a Birmingham Corporation tramcar made by the United Electric Car Company of Preston in 1907.
Admission charges are adults £2.00, concessions £1.50, family tickets (2 adults + 3 children) £6.00. These charges are increased on event days to £3.00 children/concessions and £8.00 for family tickets (last updated December 2009).
The facilities include a shop, cafe, toilets and free parking.
Guide Aston Aston Manor Road Transport Museum Website
The Birmingham Railway Museum Trust consists of the Tyseley Locomotive Works and Vintage Trains: a heritage train operator which operates steam excursions, particularly between Snow Hill Station and Stratford-upon-Avon.
The Tyseley Works are housed in the former Great Western Steam Depot (circa 1906), next to Tyesley Railway Station on Warwick Road. The works restore and maintain vintage trains. The current stock of locomotives includes three GWR Castle class engines, three GWR pannier tanks, an LMS Jubilee, a GWR Hall, a class 47 diesel and a 0-6-0 diesel shunter. Other locomotives regularly visit the works for maintenance & overhaul.
Locomotives and rolling stock are exhibited at the visitors centre which is only open to the general public on designated days when demonstrations are held. These events are extremely popular.
Guide Tyseley Railway Museum Website
Selly Manor, on Maple Road in Bournville, was built in the 1320's and extended during the Tudor period. The timber-framed manor, which originally stood in Selly Oak, was once the home of the Jouette family who were local tax collectors. After they vacated, it became dilapidated and was divided into cottages.
The manor was purchased by George Cadbury after it had been earmarked for demolition. It was then dismantled piece-by-piece and reassembled in Bournville where it opened as a museum in 1917. The parlour, kitchen, hall and bedchambers are stocked with period furniture.
A smaller 13th century mediaeval hall, known as Minworth Greaves, stands next to the manor. It was moved from its original site - somewhere between Curdworth & Minworth - and reassembled in Bournville in the 1930's.
Both houses are set in a Tudor-style garden amidst raised vegetable & herb beds, fruit trees and a section of preserved woodland.
The museum is open all year round. Admission charges are adults £3.50, concessions £2 and children £1.50. A family ticket (two adults and three children) costs £9.00 (as of December 2009).
Guide Bournville Selly Manor Museum Website
The last remaining back-to-back terraces in Birmingham are on Hurst Street and Inge Street in Southside. They have been preserved as a museum by the National Trust.
Back-to-back terraced houses share the same side and rear walls. The front house faces the street and the house built onto its back wall faces a rear courtyard.
Back-to-back houses were poorly lit and badly ventilated but ensured maximum exploitation of space. They were built by private landlords for rent.
There are three pairs of back-to-backs (circa 1830) on Inge Street and 4 blind-back terraced houses (circa 1840) on Hurst Street.
The four houses built onto the back walls of the Hurst Street terrace have been demolished, leaving a "blind back". The three houses built onto the back of the Inge Street terrace face an internal courtyard which is entered via a tunnel passage.
The courtyard is paved in brick and contains a water pump that was replaced by a mains tap in the 1880's. Outdoor toilets and two washhouses were added in the 1930's.
Each of the terraced houses possesses three floors with one room on each storey. The houses were inhabited by factory workers or self-employed tradesmen. The upper floors were often converted into workshops.
The ground floor rooms of the Hurst Street houses were converted into shops in 1900 and the original shop fronts have been preserved. They were inhabited until 1966.
Admission is by timed ticket and guided tour only. Advance booking is advised. The facilities include a traditional sweet shop. The house at 52 Inge Street has been converted into self-catering accommodation for two.
Guide Southside National Trust Website
The Thinktank Science Museum is at Millennium Point on Curzon Street in Eastside. It opened in 2001, replacing the old science museum that had been housed in the former Elkington Electroplating Works in the Jewellery Quarter.
Thinktank contains interactive exhibits intended to provoke questions about the impact of science and technology on daily life in the past, present & future.
Some industrial exhibits were formerly displayed in the old science museum which was directly managed by Birmingham City Council. This caused controversy since admission to the old museum had been free whereas the new museum, which is managed by the Thinktank Trust, charges comparatively high entrance fees.
Thinktank is divided into four sections: Thinknow, Thinkhere, Thinkback & Thinkahead. The museum also includes a full-dome 360-degree planetarium.
Thinknow is dedicated to the impact of science and technology on everyday life; Thinkhere examines the history of Birmingham from the Domesday Book (1086) to the present.
Thinkback is dedicated to industrial machinery, vintage vehicles and aircraft; and Thinkahead examines the future impact on daily life of new advances in science, medicine & technology.
The facilities include a cafe and licensed lounge bar. There is an on-site car park at Millennium Point
Links: Guide Eastside Thinktank Website
Warwickshire Cricket Club Museum is located in the Pavilion within the members area at the county cricket ground in the Calthorpe area of Edgbaston.
The museum contains memorabilia, photos and a monumental statue of Eric Hollies who took 2323 wickets for Warwickshire. There are also displays dedicated to other former stars such as Dennis Amiss & M.J.K. Smith and to the championship-winning sides of 1911, 1951, 1972, 1994, 1995 & 2002.
Other exhibits include sports cartoons by Norman Edwards and a daily record of the current season, complete with team sheets & match reports.
The museum is generally open on match days from 9am to 6.30 pm and between 10am and 3.30pm on Mondays and/or Tuesdays during the close season. Visitors are advised to book in advance.
Links: Calthorpe Guide Warwickshire County Cricket Club
The Birmingham Nature Centre is off the Pershore Road in Cannon Hill Park: a linear urban park that straddles the River Rea as it flows northwards through Edgbaston, Moseley and Selly Park.
The Nature Centre focuses on animal conservation and captive breeding programmes. It contains rare and exotic species in naturalistic enclosures such as beavers, red pandas, red squirrels, meerkats, otters, lemurs, wallabies and endangered birds, insects and reptiles.
The centre raises public awareness of environmental issues such as biodiversity and sustainability.
Parking is available at both the Nature Centre and the nearby Midlands Art Centre.
Bus numbers 45 & 47 stop on the Pershore Road outside the Nature Centre whilst bus numbers 61, 62 and 63 stop nearby on the Bristol Road.
T 0121 472 7775 Pershore Road B5 7RL
Cadbury World is a visitor attraction on Linden Road in Bournville.
It is a self-styled "fun educational multimedia attraction" consisting of a one-way self-guided tour that lasts for around 1 hr. 45 minutes. However, you should allow at least 3 hours in order to visit the shop, playground and cafe.
The tour consists of themed displays of chocolate jungles & streets, a history of chocolate-making, demonstrations of chocolate manufacture, advertising and promotional sets.
It also contains a children's ride through the fictional village of Beansville, an interactive gallery where visitors can shower in chocolate rain and an exhibition focusing on Quaker ethics and the foundation of Bournville village.
Cadbury World adjoins the modern chocolate factory which is not included in the tour. There are picnic and play areas, a shop, restaurant, cafe and free car park.
Visitors should book their tours in order to ensure admittance. The ticket line (0844 880 7667) is available from 9am to 5pm.
0844 880 7667 Linden Road B30 2LU
Guide Bournville Cadbury World Website
ational Sealife Centre
The National Sealife Centre, which overlooks the Birmingham and Wolverhampton Canal, is located at Brindleyplace in the Convention Quarter. The centre, which opened in 1996, has reproduced a tropical ocean with giant turtles, sharks and stingrays etc.
Visitors can walk through a transparent tube beneath this "ocean" and view pools stocked with tropical fish, lobsters, otters, rays, sharks and breeding seahorses.
There are touch-pool demonstrations, feeding displays, educational talks, a "lost city of Atlantis", and a 4-D cinema where dolphins leap from the screen and spectators can feel the spray and smell the seaweed.
The centre contains a shop and cafe; the nearest car park is the multi-storey in Brindleyplace.
T 0121 643 6777 3 Brindley Place B1 2JB
Guide Convention Quarter National Sealife Centre Website
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