Birmingham Museums and Galleries Walking Tour

This route takes you to some of Birmingham’s well-known and not-so-well-known museums and galleries. Start at the Birmingham Think Tank, to the Stryx, through the famous Custard Factors, Birmingham Open Media, and the Art Gallery, to end at the Tony Hancock Statue. Feel free to stop along the way if somewhere catches your eye; there’s so much to see.

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Birmingham Science Museum’s Think Tank is an interactive wonderland. Visit their Planetarium, the miniaturised city of child-sized MiniBrum, and the outdoor Science Garden. See dinosaurs, steam trains, cars, planes and more. If you’d like to experience this yourself or with your family, you can book tickets here.

Leaving the Think Tank, turn left onto Curzon Street. Just after the bridge, turn right (you’ll see a sign for the Curzon Street Canalside Walk) to walk along the Digbeth Branch Canal. Leave the pathway up onto Fazeley Street and turn left to find Stryx on your left.

Stryx is an artist-led studio that focuses on supporting artists through development programs and residencies. You can experience the art-making process here in one of their workshops or drawing classes. Additionally, they have a VR Gallery, which you can experience through the Oculus headset here.

Leaving Stryx, turn left, then right onto Heath Mill Lane. Turn right onto Gibb Street, follow its curve, and walk through the Custard Factory.

Leaving the Custard Factory, turn right onto High Street Deritend. After about 550 metres, turn left towards Moat Lane, then left onto Upper Dean Street.

The Custard Factory, as the name suggests, was once the home of Bird’s egg-free custard. Today, it is a cultural and social hub with numerous independent stores. The venue itself is a display of local and international artworks, from graffiti to installations, as it is at the heart of Digbeth, Birmingham’s graffiti treasure. See our Digbeth graffiti walk here. There are also a number of galleries you can visit, including the Mockingbird Cinema. Be sure to double-check the opening times of any of the stores you’d like to visit in the area.

At the roundabout, continue straight onto Ladywell Walk, at Hippodrome Square, turn left to find Birmingham’s Back-to-Backs on the corner. Retrace your steps to the intersection of Ladywell Walk and Upper Dean Street, then turn left onto Dudley Street. At the roundabout, take the first exit, then cross the road to find Birmingham Open Media on your left.

Exiting the BOM, turn left onto Dudley Street, follow the curves onto Station Street, and turn right onto Hill Street.

The National Trust’s Back-to-Backs are a reminder of what life was like in the 19th and 20th centuries of Birmingham’s industrial past. As the name suggests, these houses were built back-to-back, cheaply, and quickly, with the walls being only one brick thick. The houses were overcrowded, and there was poor sanitation, and they were declared unsanitary places to live in the 1930s. However, housing elsewhere was expensive, so people lived here until the 1960s when it was declared structurally unsafe and unsanitary. You can book a guided tour here.

Birmingham Open Media, BOM, is an immersive arts organisation. These experiences are created in VR, AR, and games. Their learning programmes aim to be inclusive by engaging underserved children, young people, and adults through formal and informal education. Find out more about their learning programs and projects here.

Pass Victoria Square on your right to find the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery on your right. Exiting the gallery, pass Chamberlain Square on your left onto Congreve Passage. Cross the main road curving left onto Summer Row. Turn right onto Lionel Street, then left down the passageway to find the Newman Brothers Coffin Works on your left.

Retrace your steps to Lionel Street and turn left. Turn right onto New Hall Street, left onto Colmore Row, passing Birmingham Cathedral on your right to find the Clarendon Fine Art Gallery on the corner to your left.

Leaving the gallery, turn left, then right to go through the tall glass building and continue straight down Bull Street. At the intersection with Temple Row, turn left through The Minories to exit at Old Square to find the Tony Hancock Statue.

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery holds several collections from around the world, including British Art, Folk Art, European archaeology, entomology, botany, and more. With over 800 000 objects across their nine venues, most are designated as being of national importance. Find out more about their collections here.

The Coffin Works, or Newman Brothers’ Museum, was once a thriving cabinet furniture company, then moved on to making brass finishings and furniture and, of course, coffins in 1984. The company is known to have produced the fittings for the funerals of Joseph Chamberlain, Winston Churchill, and the Queen Mother. It was acquired by Joyce Green in 1989 after working her way up from office secretary. Sadly, the company was dissolved in 1999, and Joyce made it her mission to preserve the building and turn it into a visitor attraction. It underwent a 15-year restoration and conservation process with a couple of bumps along the way. Today, the building is Grade II listed and hosts numerous events such as craft workshops and tours.

The Clarendon Birmingham is one of the largest galleries in the Clarendon network. It offers personal experiences for first-time buyers and experienced art collectors. If you’re interested in buying artwork, you can contact one of their consultants, discuss your lifestyles, taste, and budget, and they will source a piece for you and deliver it to you wherever you are. Additionally, Clarendon hosts meet-and-greets with various artists at their different branches.

Tony Hancock was born in Hall Green in Birmingham and then moved to Bournemouth, where he was brought up. He was a well-known comedian and actor, especially in the 60s. His hit show Hancock Half Hour kicked off his career; it first aired on radio and then on BBC in 1956. After a tumultuous career, love life, and struggle with alcohol, Tony sadly took his own life in 1968 at just 44 years old. In 2002, a poll by BBC showed that Hancock was BBC listeners’ favourite comedian. Hancock also influences the fictional characters Alan Partridge and David Brent, nodding specifically to their characteristic self-delusion. He is remembered by numerous plaques throughout this part of Birmingham, as well as this statue in Corporation Street.

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Resources:

If you enjoyed this route, see our Bookish walking tour.

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Information gathered from various sources, including Wikipedia.