What to See in Birmingham, United Kingdom: Free Audio Guide
Things to Do in Birmingham: What to See and Explore
Looking for things to do in Birmingham? England’s second city combines major museums, historic churches, grand houses, industrial heritage and distinctive neighbourhoods. From the civic centre and Jewellery Quarter to university galleries and former industrial estates, there is plenty to explore across the city.
Neywo has a free audio guide for Birmingham with 361 narrated places, so you can discover the city’s stories as you walk.
What to See in Birmingham
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery is one of the city’s cultural highlights. Its internationally important collections cover fine art, ceramics, metalwork, jewellery, natural history, archaeology, ethnography, local history and industrial history. Opened in 1885, it has played a central role in Birmingham’s cultural life ever since. The Gas Hall hosts major exhibitions, some with a separate ticket charge.
Aston Hall
Aston Hall is one of England’s finest Jacobean mansions. Designed by John Thorpe and built between 1618 and 1635, the Grade I listed building is a classic prodigy house: a residence created to display wealth and ambition.
Its history also reaches beyond its architecture. In 1864, Aston Hall became the first historic country house in England to pass into municipal ownership when Birmingham Corporation bought it for the public. The American author Washington Irving visited the house and used it as the model for Bracebridge Hall in Sketch Book.
Soho House
Soho House in Handsworth reveals Birmingham’s importance during the Industrial Revolution. The Georgian house was the residence of one of the period’s most influential figures and became a regular meeting place for the Lunar Society.
Erasmus Darwin, Josiah Wedgwood, Joseph Priestley and James Watt were among the thinkers and inventors who met there to discuss science, philosophy and industry. The Grade II* listed house also reflects the technological interests of its former residents, with features including central heating and a private laboratory where steam engines were refined.
Sarehole Mill
Sarehole Mill stands beside the River Cole in Hall Green and is one of only two working water mills left in Birmingham. Records show a mill on the site since 1542, while much of the present building dates from 1768.
The mill has a literary connection too: J. R. R. Tolkien helped fund its restoration in 1968. The water wheel and grinding machinery remain central to a visit, alongside the millpond, bakehouse and exhibitions about the site’s industrial and literary history.
Ikon Gallery
Ikon Gallery brings contemporary art to Birmingham with an international perspective on current artistic practice. It provides a contrast to the city’s historic museums and collections, making it a useful stop for visitors interested in modern art.
St Chad’s Cathedral
St Chad’s Cathedral occupies a peaceful green space just off Queensway in central Birmingham. It is the Metropolitan Cathedral and Basilica of Saint Chad, the mother church of the Archdiocese of Birmingham and the seat of Archbishop Bernard Longley.
Designed by Augustus Welby Pugin, the cathedral was substantially completed in 1841 and became a cathedral in 1852. It was among the first four Catholic churches built in England after the Reformation and is one of only four minor basilicas in England. Its Gothic Revival architecture has Grade II* listing.
Barber Institute of Fine Arts
On the University of Birmingham campus, the Barber Institute of Fine Arts combines an art gallery and concert hall in an Art Deco building. Designed by Robert Atkinson in the 1930s and opened by Queen Mary in 1939, it was the first building in Britain purpose-built for the study of art history.
The galleries occupy the first floor around a central concert hall. Two heraldic shields outside represent the University of Birmingham and the Barber family; Gordon Herickx carved them between 1936 and 1937. The Equestrian statue of George I stands outside the institute. The bronze monument depicts the first Hanoverian monarch of Great Britain and has become a familiar landmark at the gallery.
West Midlands Police Museum
The West Midlands Police Museum occupies a Victorian cell block on Steelhouse Lane. The building served as a working police station from 1891 until 2016 and reopened as a museum in April 2022 after refurbishment.
The Grade II listed cell block preserves the corridors and cells used for more than a century. Exhibits trace policing in Birmingham from before the city force was officially formed in 1839, with artefacts, archives and paintings including a portrait of Sir Charles Haughton Rafter, the city’s longest-serving chief constable.
Blakesley Hall
Blakesley Hall in Yardley is one of Birmingham’s oldest buildings. Richard Smalbroke built the timber-framed farmhouse in 1590, when Yardley was still part of Worcestershire.
Its dark timber framing, wattle-and-daub infill, lime render and projecting upper floors show how the house was designed to express wealth and status. A brick kitchen block was added around 1650. After later periods as a tenant farm and family home, the hall became a museum in 1935 dedicated to the history of Birmingham’s medieval manors.
Selly Manor Museum
Selly Manor Museum presents a genuine fourteenth-century timber-framed house in Bournville. George Cadbury, the chocolate manufacturer and philanthropist who shaped the village, had the building dismantled and moved to the site in 1916.
The exposed wooden beams and wattle-and-daub infill reveal its medieval construction. Together with neighbouring Minworth Greaves, the house forms a living heritage site and community hub run by the Bournville Village Trust.
St Philip’s Cathedral
St Philip’s Cathedral occupies a central position on Colmore Row. It began as a parish church, was consecrated in 1715 and was designed in the Baroque style by Thomas Archer. It became a Church of England cathedral in 1905 and is Grade I listed.
Despite its importance, St Philip’s is the third smallest cathedral in England, after Derby and Chelmsford.
St Paul’s Church and the Jewellery Quarter
St Paul’s Church stands at the centre of Birmingham’s last remaining Georgian square. Consecrated in 1779 and designed by Roger Eykyn, it looks across St Paul’s Square, which was laid out on the Newhall estate of the Colmore family.
The square was once one of Birmingham’s most desirable addresses. Later, workshops and factories associated with the Jewellery Quarter changed the area, but restoration from the 1970s helped recover its Georgian character. Most buildings around the square are Grade II listed, including the restored façade of the former Thomas Walker building.
St Paul’s Church in Hamstead
A second St Paul’s Church serves the Hamstead area of Birmingham. The Church of England parish church is Grade II listed for its special architectural or historic interest.
Statue of Horatio Nelson
In the Bull Ring, the bronze Statue of Horatio Nelson is one of Birmingham’s oldest public monuments. Westmacott unveiled it in 1809, four years after Nelson’s death at Trafalgar. Public subscription funded the statue, reflecting the strength of the admiral’s reputation across Britain.
Explore Birmingham with a Self-Guided Audio Tour
A Birmingham self-guided walking tour is a useful way to connect the city’s museums, churches, squares and industrial landmarks without joining a group. Neywo’s Birmingham collection includes 7 walking tours, 1 bus route and 1 bike route.
The walking tours range from 0.52 to 2.69 km, last between 44 and 110 minutes, and contain 4 to 12 narrated stops each. They cover the Civic Heart, Centenary Square, the Jewellery Quarter, Bull Ring and Chinatown, Corporation Street, the University of Birmingham and Handsworth.
The 13.5 km bus route lasts 58 minutes and has 6 narrated stops, travelling from the cathedral, Old Rep and Bull Ring towards Hockley. The 9.7 km bike route takes 48 minutes and has 8 narrated stops, following the canals from University railway station to Gravelly Hill Interchange.
Download Neywo to explore Birmingham at your own pace. The app tells the story of each place as you reach it, with no group and no schedule. Narration is available in 11 languages.
Birmingham is part of England, within the United Kingdom.
Places with an audio guide in Birmingham
8 places in Birmingham with a Neywo audio guide. Each one starts telling its story as you reach it.
Self-guided tours in Birmingham
9 tours in Birmingham, free in the Neywo app. Each stop tells its story as you reach it.
- Bike ride
Birmingham by Canal: University to Spaghetti Junction
A ride along the city's canal towpaths and cycle routes from the University of Birmingham to the junction that every driver knows. You pass the gas retort house at Gas Street, the NIA arena by Old Turn Junction and the Coffin Works, then reach St Chad's and Spaghetti Junction from below.
University railway station · Gas Street Central · Symphony Hall · Eurovision Song Contest 1998 · Coffin Works · Birmingham Assay Office …
Open this tour: Birmingham by Canal: University to Spaghetti Junction - Bus ride
Route 16A: Cathedral, Old Rep and the Bull Ring to Hockley
Ride Diamond Bus 16A, a regular city service between Birmingham and West Bromwich, through the middle of the city. You pass St Chad's Cathedral, the Old Rep, Nelson's statue in the Bull Ring and St Michael's on Moor Street. The ride ends at the Snow Hill mosaic and the concrete reliefs under the Hockley flyover.
St Chad's Cathedral · Old Rep · Statue of Horatio Nelson · St Michael's Catholic Church · History of Snow Hill Mural · Brutalist Climbing Wall
Open this tour: Route 16A: Cathedral, Old Rep and the Bull Ring to Hockley - Walk
The Civic Heart: Squares, Statues and Colmore Row
Start on the street where Birmingham's telephone exchange hides a Cold War bunker, then visit the Victorian temple of learning on Margaret Street and cross the gothic fountain square. Meet a six-metre iron giant at the point from which every road distance in the city is measured, find the vanished church and theatre beneath the shops, and end at Birmingham's Baroque cathedral on Colmore Row.
Newhall Street · Birmingham and Midland Institute · Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery · Chamberlain Memorial · Statue of Queen Victoria · Iron:Man …
Open this tour: The Civic Heart: Squares, Statues and Colmore Row - Walk
Centenary Square: Golden Boys, a Hall of Memory and a Gas Works Church
Birmingham's modern stage: the biggest public library in the UK, the gilded engineers nicknamed the Carpet Salesmen, a memorial to twelve thousand fallen citizens and a church hiding in the roof of the city's first gasworks. Finish by the canal.
Hall of Memory, Birmingham · King Edward VII Memorial · Library of Birmingham · A Real Birmingham Family · Centenary Square · Boulton, Watt and Murdoch …
Open this tour: Centenary Square: Golden Boys, a Hall of Memory and a Gas Works Church - Walk
Workshop of the World: A Jewellery Quarter Loop
Factories frozen in time, a hallmark that came from a coin toss and a Georgian square in the middle of Europe's biggest jewellery district. Visit the Assay Office, a perfectly preserved jewellery works, the Pen Museum and the Coffin Works.
Coffin Works · Birmingham Assay Office · St Paul's Church · Museum of the Jewellery Quarter · Chamberlain Clock · Pen Museum …
Open this tour: Workshop of the World: A Jewellery Quarter Loop - Walk
Bull Ring to Chinatown
From the market church where Birmingham began and Nelson's one-armed statue to the circular Rotunda tower, Britain's first purpose-built repertory theatre and the last surviving back-to-back houses. Cross Chinatown under its granite pagoda and finish at a Victorian synagogue.
Moor Street Theatre · St Michael's Catholic Church · Carrs Lane Church · St Martin in the Bull Ring · Statue of Horatio Nelson · Rotunda …
Open this tour: Bull Ring to Chinatown - Walk
Corporation Street: Terracotta, Cells and Snow Hill
Walk Joseph Chamberlain's Victorian boulevard from the Snow Hill railway story to Tony Hancock's statue. See the first health-food restaurant in the country, the red terracotta Law Courts, a Victorian police cell block that is now a museum and the university campus that grew beyond them.
Birmingham Snow Hill station · History of Snow Hill Mural · Tony Hancock · The Pitman Vegetarian Hotel · Victoria Law Courts · West Midlands Police Museum …
Open this tour: Corporation Street: Terracotta, Cells and Snow Hill - Walk
Old Joe and the Art Deco Gallery: University of Birmingham
A short stroll through the Edgbaston campus: the geology museum, Old Joe, the tallest free-standing clock tower in the world, and the Art Deco Barber Institute with its bronze equestrian statue of George I.
Lapworth Museum of Geology · Joseph Chamberlain Memorial Clock Tower · Barber Institute of Fine Arts · Equestrian statue of George I
Open this tour: Old Joe and the Art Deco Gallery: University of Birmingham - Walk
Handsworth: The Lunar Men's Home and Victorian Churches
Visit the Georgian house where Matthew Boulton lived while he and his friends reshaped the world, then follow Soho Road past the Handsworth council house and three of the district's historic churches.
Soho House · St Michael's Church, Handsworth · Council House, Handsworth · St Peter's Church, Handsworth · St James' Church
Open this tour: Handsworth: The Lunar Men's Home and Victorian Churches
Walk Birmingham with Neywo
Neywo turns Birmingham into a self-guided audio tour. Stories arrive as you reach the place they belong to, and the route reshapes when you wander off it.
