Must-see attractions in Birmingham

Resembling a glittering stack of gift-wrapped presents, the Francine Houben–designed Library of Birmingham is an architectural triumph. The 2013-opened…

At the University of Birmingham, 3 miles south of the city centre, the Barber Institute of Fine Arts has an astonishing collection of Renaissance…

The next best thing to Willy Wonka's chocolate factory is Cadbury World, 4 miles south of Birmingham. It educates visitors about the history of cocoa and…

Exotic marine creatures including otters, jellyfish, piranhas and razor-jawed hammerhead sharks swim in the Sir Norman Foster–designed National Sea Life…

Quirky tours of this cluster of restored back-to-back terraced houses take you through four working-class homes, telling the stories of those who lived…

Major Pre-Raphaelite works by Rossetti, Edward Burne-Jones and others are among the highlights of the delightful Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery's…

Just over a mile southeast of the city centre, Digbeth's creative quarter centres on the Custard Factory, a hip art-and-design enclave set in the…

Situated 1.5 miles northwest of Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter, Soho House is where industrialist Matthew Boulton lived from 1766 to 1809. Among the…

Surrounded by the footprints of vanished factories, the Millennium Point development incorporates this entertaining and ambitious attempt to make science…

Set in lush grounds 3 miles north of the city centre, this well-preserved hall was built in extravagant Jacobean style between 1618 and 1635. The…

Within the glitzy Brindley Pl development of banking offices and designer restaurants, a converted Gothic schoolhouse contains the cutting-edge Ikon…

The Smith & Pepper jewellery factory is preserved as it was on its closing day in 1981 after 80 years of operation. Guided tours lasting around one hour…

Dedicated to St Philip, this small but perfectly formed cathedral was constructed in a neoclassical style between 1709 and 1715. Pre-Raphaelite artist…

St Paul's Sq is dominated by this beautiful 18th-century Georgian church, where 'Birmingham Brains' Matthew Boulton and James Watt came to pray. Details…

Public art in Victoria Sq includes modernist sphinxes and artist Dhruva Mistry's 1994-installed fountain, The River. Topped by a naked female figure, it's…

Birmingham's Industrial Revolution leading lights Matthew Boulton, James Watt and William Murdoch are depicted in this gleaming gilded statue. It's…

Birmingham architect Alfred Chatwin designed this Victorian Gothic church in the Bullring. The 1873-completed structure occupies a site where a church has…

Run by local artists who focus on art as a powerful agent for change, cavernous Eastside Projects has a pronounced and thought-provoking lean towards…

Constructed in 1834 and styled after the Temple of Castor and Pollux in Rome, Birmingham's neoclassical Town Hall is now used as a venue for classical…

Victoria Sq's 1993 fountain The River, aka 'the floozie in the Jacuzzi', is overlooked by this disapproving statue of Queen Victoria.