4 Best Sights in Birmingham, Stratford-upon-Avon and the Heart of England

Part of the University of Birmingham, this museum has a small but astounding collection of European paintings, prints, drawings, and sculpture, including works by Botticelli, van Dyck, Gainsborough, Turner, Manet, Monet, Degas, van Gogh, and Magritte. The museum also has a lively program of temporary exhibitions and a weekly lunchtime concert at 1pm on Friday, as well as occasional evening concerts. Starting in 2023, part of the museum closed for a few months for refurbishment; much of it is open now, though some work will continue through 2025. The museum is 3 miles south of the city center; to get here, take a train from New Street Station to University Station, which is a 10-minute walk from the museum, or jump on Bus 61 or 63, operated by National Express West Midlands.

Vast and impressive, this museum holds a magnificent collection of Victorian art and is known internationally for its works by the Pre-Raphaelites. All the big names are here—among them Rubens, Renoir, Constable, and Francis Bacon—reflecting the enormous wealth of 19th-century Birmingham and the aesthetic taste of its industrialists. Galleries of metalwork, silver, and ceramics reveal some of the city’s history, and works from the Renaissance, the Arts and Crafts movement, and the present day are also well represented. One gallery displays part of the incredible Staffordshire Hoard, the greatest collection of Anglo-Saxon treasure ever discovered. Part of the museum's four-year phased restoration (to be completed by summer 2025) introduced a new Made in Birmingham permanent exhibition that celebrates the city’s trades and crafts. The Edwardian Tearooms is a lovely spot for lunch between seeing the exhibitions.

Converted from a Victorian Gothic–style school, this gallery is among the city’s top venues for contemporary art from the United Kingdom and abroad, and rightly so. The bright, white interior of is divided into two main galleries, which host rolling exhibitions. A third space called The Tower hosts more site-specific shows. The bookshop is great, and there’s a very nice café on the ground floor. Ikon, which opened in 1965, exemplifies how Birmingham is embracing its past while moving very much into the future.

The early-18th-century Cathedral Church of St. Philip, a few blocks from Victoria Square, contains some lovely plasterwork in its elegant, gilded Georgian interior. The stained glass windows behind the altar, designed by the Pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Burne-Jones (1833–98) and executed by the firm of William Morris & Company, glow with sensuous hues. There are regular free half-hour guided tours (most Mondays at 12:30 pm and Thursdays at 11:30 am) where you can find out how this church became a cathedral.