Birmingham Museum &
Art Gallery In Chamberlain Square, the Birmingham
Museum & Art Gallery is famous for its excellent permanent
collection of Pre-Raphaelite art. There's a room devoted to work
by local lad Sir Edward Burne-Jones (1833-93) and you can see
paintings by other members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (founded
1848), including Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Ford Madox Brown.
The museum has exhibitions celebrating the city's industries,
and displays on local and natural history, ethnography and archaeology.
Look out for William Morris' illustrations of Dante's Inferno
and outside, Big Brum, Birmingham's answer to Big Ben. Don't miss
the charming Edwardian Tea Room.
Jewellery
Quarter If you've got someone to impress, look
no further than Birmingham's atmospheric jewellery quarter. Only
a 15-minute walk from the heart of the city, this part of town
has been full of jewellers' workshops since the 16th century.
The workshops are fascinating, and it can be a good place to find
bargains. You may be lucky enough to catch the Craft & Antiques
Sunday Market, which is on around once a month.
At the Museum of the Jewellery Quarter visitors can look around
the Smith & Pepper jewellery factory, which has been kept
as it was in its heyday. There's the chance to see workers creating
pieces on old machines, and to learn about the history of Birmingham's
jewellery industry.
The
Canals & Brindleyplace Birmingham's canal network goes right
through the heart of the city. Visiting narrow boats moor at Gas
St Basin, where the Worcester & Birmingham and Birmingham
& Fazeley canals meet. If you fancy a go in the driving seat,
you can hire a boat from here and have a turn on the tiller. Also in this area is the ever
popular National Sea Life Centre, where you can stand in a glass
tunnel and watch stingrays, sharks and other scary creatures swim
past you.
St
Philip's Cathedral If all the modern buildings are beginning
to make you feel Birmingham has no soul, check out the neoclassical
St Philip's Cathedral, designed by Thomas Archer and built between
1709 and 1715. The stained-glass windows were created by local
pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Burne-Jones when the building was
extended in the 1880s: at the western end is the Last Judgement,
and at the eastern end the Nativity, Crucifixion and Ascension.
Cadbury World For chocaholics this attraction should
come with a warning sign. At Cadbury World visitors can learn
the history of chocolate, see it being made, and, most importantly,
sample the stuff! It gets very busy at weekends and during school
holidays, so if you want to go then it's best to book ahead.
