Birmingham travel guide

Top 10 sights in Birmingham

Ranked by Wikipedia language editions — proven fame.

1. 

   1© David Stowell · CC BY-SA 2.0

   Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery

   Opened in 1885, with collections of international standing — above all the largest gathering of Pre-Raphaelite painting anywhere — alongside ceramics, metalwork, jewellery and archaeology. Entry is free, and the trust that runs it looks after nine museums across the city.

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   St Philip's Cathedral

   A small baroque church of 1715 raised to cathedral in 1905 when the Birmingham diocese was created, and one of the smallest Anglican cathedrals in England. Its four windows by Edward Burne-Jones, a Birmingham man, were made by Morris and Co.

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3. 

   3© Oosoom at English Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0

   St Paul's Church

   A Georgian church of 1779 in St Paul's Square in the Jewellery Quarter, the last complete Georgian square in the city. Matthew Boulton and James Watt, who built steam engines a few streets away, rented pews in it.

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4. 

   4© Oosoom · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Birmingham Central Mosque

   A mosque in Highgate run by the Birmingham Mosque Trust, one of the earliest purpose-built mosques in Britain, opened in 1969 after a decade of fundraising. It holds about six thousand worshippers including the women's section and is classed as non-sectarian.

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5. 

   5© Phil Champion · CC BY-SA 2.0

   Icknield Street

   A Roman road running southwest to northeast from Gloucestershire to South Yorkshire, past Alcester, Birmingham, Lichfield and Derby. A stretch of the agger survives above ground in Sutton Park.

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   St Chad's Cathedral

   The Catholic cathedral of Birmingham, designed by Augustus Welby Pugin and largely finished in 1841 — one of the first Catholic churches built in Britain after the Reformation and made a cathedral in 1852. Its brick Gothic interior holds a fifteenth-century Flemish pulpit Pugin bought abroad.

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7. 

   7© Bs0u10e01 · CC BY 3.0

   Letocetum

   The remains of a Roman posting station at the crossing of Watling Street and Icknield Street, begun as a fortress about AD 50 during the invasion of Britain. Successive bath houses and a mansio served official travellers on the road to north Wales; the National Trust and English Heritage now keep the site.

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8. 

   8© Tony Hisgett from Birmingham, UK · CC BY 2.0

   Dudley Castle

   A ruined fortress on a limestone outcrop, built in timber after the Norman Conquest, rebuilt in stone in the 12th century, pulled down on Henry II's orders and raised again from the 1260s. Parliament slighted it during the Civil War and fire gutted the lodgings in 1750; Dudley Zoo now fills the grounds.

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9. 

   9© Tony Hisgett from Birmingham, UK · CC BY 2.0

   Aston Hall

   A Jacobean prodigy house in Aston designed by John Thorpe and built between 1618 and 1635, Grade I listed. Charles I stayed in it in 1642 and parliamentary cannon damaged the great staircase, which was left unrepaired and is still visible.

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    Birmingham Oratory

    A community of the Oratory of St Philip Neri in Edgbaston, founded in 1849 by John Henry Newman as the first Oratory in England after his conversion from Anglicanism. Newman lived here until his death in 1890 and his rooms are preserved; he was canonised in 2019.

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Popular tickets & tours in Birmingham

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Based on 2025 Wikipedia pageviews — popular places beyond the top 10.

1. 

   1© Steve Daniels · CC BY-SA 2.0

   Drayton Manor Theme Park

   A family theme park and zoo on 73 hectares at Drayton Bassett in Staffordshire, drawing about 1.5 million visitors a year. Thomas Land, licensed from the railway series, and a zoo of over a hundred animals including red pandas share the grounds.

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2. 

   2© Tony Hisgett from Birmingham, UK · CC BY 2.0

   Joseph Chamberlain Memorial Clock Tower

   A campanile of 1908 in Chancellor's Court at the University of Birmingham, one hundred metres high and the tallest free-standing clock tower in the world. Students call it Old Joe and believe that anyone walking under it while it chimes will fail their exams.

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3. 

   3© Grutness at English Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Cadbury World

   A visitor attraction at Bournville run by Cadbury, on the site of the model village the Quaker Cadbury family built for their workers in the 1890s — with no pub, on principle. The self-guided tour covers cocoa, the factory and the advertising.

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4. 

   4© Sunil060902 · CC BY-SA 3.0

   St Martin in the Bull Ring

   The original parish church of Birmingham, between the Bull Ring market and the shopping centre, rebuilt in 1873 by J. A. Chatwin on a thirteenth-century foundation. It is Grade II* listed and holds medieval effigies of the de Bermingham lords.

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   Victoria Square

   A pedestrianised square in front of the 1834 Town Hall and the Council House, named after Queen Victoria. Dhruva Mistry's 1993 fountain sculpture, a reclining female figure locals call the Floozie in the Jacuzzi, is its centrepiece.

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6. 

   6© Brian Clift · CC BY-SA 2.0

   Dudley Zoo

   A sixteen-hectare zoo in the grounds of Dudley Castle, opened on 18 May 1937, which retains twelve modernist concrete animal houses by Berthold Lubetkin and the Tecton group — the largest surviving collection of Tecton buildings anywhere.

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7. 

   7© Stefan Scheer · CC BY-SA 3.0

   The Shock Wave

   A steel stand-up roller coaster at Drayton Manor in Staffordshire, built by Intamin and opened in 1994 as Shockwave. It was the first stand-up coaster in Britain and riders are secured in a standing position throughout.

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8. 

   8© Michael Westley · CC BY-SA 2.0

   Ghamkol Shariff Masjid

   A Sunni mosque of the Sufi Barelvi tradition in Small Heath, whose construction began during Ramadan on 15 March 1992. It is one of the largest mosques in Birmingham and its dome and minarets are visible across the district.

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9. 

   9© Roger Kidd · CC BY-SA 2.0

   St Peter's Collegiate Church

   For centuries a chapel royal, and from 1480 a royal peculiar answering to neither Lichfield nor Canterbury. Until the 18th century it was the only church in Wolverhampton, and its dean owned much of the town; the Grade I listed building is largely 15th-century Perpendicular work.

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10. 

    10© Amandachan1106 · CC BY-SA 4.0

    Thinktank

    A science museum at Millennium Point in Digbeth, opened in 2001 and run by Birmingham Museums Trust. It holds the oldest working steam engine in the world, a Boulton and Watt of 1779, and the city's industrial collections.

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