Things to do in Birmingham right now
Birmingham is easy to underrate and easy to enjoy: more canal than Venice, a compact centre where the museums, the library and the shops are minutes apart, and a food scene that runs from the Balti Triangle to Michelin stars. This list is re-ordered for the weather and the time in Birmingham right now.
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Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery
Chamberlain Square
The biggest Pre-Raphaelite collection in the world, in a Victorian palace of a museum, free.
Indoors, so the rain doesn't matter. Free.
- Free
- Indoors
- Under 2 hours
Library of Birmingham
Centenary Square
A gold-ringed library with two free roof gardens and a Shakespeare room at the top.
Indoors, so the rain doesn't matter. Free.
- Free
- Indoors
- Under 2 hours
Cadbury World
Bournville
The chocolate factory tour, with a ride, a 4D cinema and a lot of free samples.
Indoors, so the rain doesn't matter.
- Over £25
- Indoors
- Half a day
- Good with kids
Thinktank Science Museum
Millennium Point
Four floors of science with a planetarium, a Spitfire and a hands-on outdoor terrace.
Indoors, so the rain doesn't matter.
- £10 to £25
- Indoors
- Half a day
- Good with kids
Cannon Hill Park and mac
Edgbaston
The city’s favourite park, with boating lakes, a mini golf course and an arts centre on the edge.
Mostly under cover. Free.
- Free
- In and out
- Half a day
- Fine in rain
- Good with kids
Barber Institute of Fine Arts
University of Birmingham
A small Art Deco gallery with Monet, Degas and Turner, free, on the university campus.
Indoors, so the rain doesn't matter. Free.
- Free
- Indoors
- Under 2 hours
Bullring and Grand Central
City centre
The Selfridges building and the shops around it, with the Bull outside and New Street station beneath.
Indoors, so the rain doesn't matter. Free.
- Free
- Indoors
- Half a day
- Good with kids
Ikon Gallery
Brindleyplace
Contemporary art in a neo-Gothic school by the canal, free, with a singing lift.
Indoors, so the rain doesn't matter. Free.
- Free
- Indoors
- Under 2 hours
Birmingham Hippodrome
Southside
The busiest theatre in the country, with touring musicals and Birmingham Royal Ballet.
Indoors, so the rain doesn't matter.
- Over £25
- Indoors
- Under 2 hours
- Good with kids
National Sea Life Centre
Brindleyplace
An aquarium with a 360-degree ocean tunnel, penguins and otters, on the canal.
Indoors, so the rain doesn't matter.
- Over £25
- Indoors
- Under 2 hours
- Good with kids
Balti Triangle
Sparkbrook
The birthplace of the balti, a mile south of the centre, with dinner served in the pan.
Comes alive in the evening.
- Under £10
- Indoors
- Under 2 hours
Symphony Hall
Broad Street
One of the best concert halls in the world, home of the CBSO, with a busy programme.
Comes alive in the evening.
- £10 to £25
- Indoors
- Under 2 hours
Birmingham Cathedral
St Philip’s Square
A small baroque cathedral with four Burne-Jones windows, in the square where the city meets for lunch.
Indoors, so the rain doesn't matter. Free.
- Free
- Indoors
- Under 2 hours
Digbeth
Digbeth
Street art, the Custard Factory and the bars and music venues in the old industrial quarter.
Free.
- Free
- In and out
- Under 2 hours
Black Country Living Museum
Day trip: Dudley
A recreated industrial village with a 1930s chip shop, a mine and the Peaky Blinders sets.
- Over £25
- In and out
- A full day
- Good with kids
Jewellery Quarter
Jewellery Quarter
Two hundred working jewellers, a preserved 1980s workshop museum and the best pubs in the city.
- Under £10
- In and out
- Half a day
Quarter free; museum ticketed
The Coffin Works
Jewellery Quarter
The factory that made the fittings for Churchill’s coffin, preserved as it was left.
Indoors, so the rain doesn't matter.
- Under £10
- Indoors
- Under 2 hours
Moseley village and Moseley Bog
Moseley
Independent shops, a farmers’ market and the woodland that inspired Tolkien’s Old Forest.
Free.
- Free
- In and out
- Half a day
Birmingham Botanical Gardens
Edgbaston
Fifteen acres of Victorian gardens and four glasshouses in Edgbaston.
- £10 to £25
- In and out
- Half a day
- Good with kids
Gas Street Basin and the canals
Brindleyplace
Narrowboats, towpaths and waterside bars where the canal network meets the city.
Wet right now, so save this for a dry spell.
- Free
- Outdoors
- Under 2 hours
Aston Hall
Aston
A Jacobean mansion beside Villa Park, with a long gallery and a cannonball scar from the Civil War.
Free.
- Free
- In and out
- Under 2 hours
- Good with kids
Free; limited opening days
Winterbourne House and Garden
Edgbaston
An Edwardian house and seven acres of Arts and Crafts garden on the university campus.
- Under £10
- In and out
- Under 2 hours
Lickey Hills Country Park
Day trip
Wooded hills on the southern edge of the city with a view from the Beacon across four counties.
Wet right now, so save this for a dry spell.
- Free
- Outdoors
- Half a day
- Good with kids
Sutton Park
Sutton Coldfield
A national nature reserve of heath, woods and lakes, bigger than Hampstead Heath.
Wet right now, so save this for a dry spell.
- Free
- Outdoors
- Half a day
- Good with kids