Why go
This perspective helps you choose between very different experiences. The museum collections and public squares explain civic ambition; smaller workshop museums reveal particular trades. Add the Birmingham Back to Backs for domestic history, or turn towards Ikon Gallery and the canals for contemporary art and a waterside walk.
The full story
Birmingham grew through a range of manufacturing trades rather than a single product. Its industrial reputation gave it the nickname 'city of a thousand trades', a useful starting point for understanding the variety of its museums. Steel pen nibs, jewellery and coffin fittings each open a different window onto that working city. The civic centre tells a complementary story. Public buildings and squares put collective ambition on display, while the Library of Birmingham adds a modern architectural presence. These are different ways of looking at the same city: through the things it produced and the institutions it built. Birmingham also became a centre for commerce, conferences and events. Its visitor experiences reflect those overlapping roles. A gallery visit, a preserved workshop and a performance need different amounts of time, so a few deliberate choices will reveal more than an attempt to cover every district.