Start exploring England’s second city this season and you’ll find it has some surprises up its sleeve
There are so many reasons to love Birmingham. There’s a vibrant food scene (more than five Michelin restaurants at current count), cute neighbourhoods (Moseley was once voted the best place to live in the UK) and a bubbling creative scene (stroll around Digbeth for an intro). Brum is a city worth getting to know. Remember: if you revisit this page in early April, you’ll find an all-new selection of events. Enjoy!
You can stalk the very same streets the real Peaky Blinders did thanks to these dedicated tours. Follow in the footsteps of Birmingham’s most notorious Victorian gang with a Peaky Tour in Digbeth, visit the Lock-up at Steelhouse Lane police station where some of the gang was incarcerated or see the TV show sets at the Black Country Living Museum.
Let’s cut straight to it: yes, there are opportunities to sample Cadbury’s range of sweet treats in this walk-through attraction. The world-famous chocolate manufacturer’s site in Bournville Village is pretty kid-centric – but hey, who cares when there’s molten chocolate involved? Don’t forget to check out the nearby (and more adult-friendly) Bournville model village.
‘Lord of the Rings’ author JRR Tolkien grew up in Birmingham in the bucolic area around Moseley Bog in the 1890s, and it’s said to be the inspiration for hobbit-hangout The Shire. Down the road in Edgbaston, a Victorian waterworks apparently formed the basis for the evil Sauron’s towering lair. Slightly less bucolic, obvs.
