Selly Manor Museum

This 500 year old house has had a tumultuous history. It was the home of the Setterford family from 1561 to 1699.The head of the family, attorney and bailiff John Setterford, was an employee of the Lord of Selly, William Gower, who bought Selly estate and house in 1517.Later residents included a merchant, trader, doctor, a farmer, and an 84-year-old carpenter and ironmonger. After this, the house’s status declined due to poor care from absentee landlords and changes in taste that left the building of an unfashionable design. The manor was split into three different cottages, and in 1907 it was due to be demolished due to its poor state of repair. 

George Cadbury acquired the house in 1907 to prevent this. He intended to transform the house into a museum as an educational building for the people of Birmingham: connecting them to their past. George had the building painstakingly taken down and moved to its current site, a process that took 7 years to complete. Today the house is still a museum, dedicated to Birmingham’s Tudor heritage. 

St. Philip’s Cathedral

St Phillips was constructed between 1711-1715, when the nearby St Martin in the Bullring became insufficient to house its congregation. It is the oldest building in the city centre that is still used for its original purpose. In the nineteenth century, the massive growth of the city meant many small new parishes, and Birmingham achieved city status in 1889. The city needed new administrative centres, and in 1905 St. Phillips became the cathedral at the centre of the newly formed Diocese of Birmingham. The Cathedral has survived a great deal over the years: thankfully the stained glass windows were removed to preserve them when the Cathedral was struck by a bomb and gutted during World War Two, on 7th November 1940. Today, the cathedral and its grounds form Cathedral Square, on Colmore Row, often affectionately known as ‘Pigeon Park’ for the birds that flock to the area.

Birmingham Town Hall

Birmingham’s Town Hall is the first of many halls that would characterise Victorian English cities. The highly radical political environment in Birmingham in the 1830s led to a Roman-style for the building, due to the republican associations of the area. The Town Hall was created as a home for Birmingham’s Triennial Music Festival and has been used for many public events in its lifetime. Famous Victorian author Charles Dickens gave public readings in the building to raise money for charitable ventures. As a music venue, the Hall has seen some significant acts: the late twentieth-century playing host to the likes of The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, and Queen. Town Hall is now a concert venue, managed alongside Symphony Hall.

Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery

The Birmingham Society of Artists created a private exhibition building in 1829, but in 1864 the first public exhibition room was opened. In 1864 the first public exhibition room opened, and in 1885 the Museum and Art Gallery opened as part of an extended part of the council house. The Museum has since then expanded to include the Gas Hall and Waterhall, which feature exhibitions throughout the year. The museum includes a series of excellent collections: the Anglo-Saxon Staffordshire hoard, the largest hoard of its kind ever found; Ancient Egyptian artefacts; an exhibition that uses physical artefacts to explore the fascinating history of Birmingham from the Middle ages to the present day.