A shopping centre from the space age, its many miles of canals and one of the loveliest libraries in Europe are among the best landmarks in Birmingham UK, to visit.
I recently got to spend a few days in Britain’s second city, and got to explore the main Birmingham sights again for the first time in a fair few years. The city had been transformed in the 2000s, particularly with the futuristic Selfridges store building, and I was fascinated to see it anew.
Most of these Birmingham landmarks are within walking distance of each other, in and around the city centre. And a weekend in Birmingham would give you plenty of time to visit them all. They make a great introduction to the city, and in this article I’ll give you background information on each landmark, and explain how to get to each.
I hope you find it helpful.
Landmarks in Birmingham UK – Modern Buildings
Selfridges and Bull Ring Shopping Centre
The Selfridges Building is Birmingham’s iconic poster landmark, and I’d say it has given the city a great lift since its completion in 2003.
It’s part of the huge Bull Ring shopping centre, but the intention was to create something that stands out from the rest of the complex. It does that alright!
I always enjoy buildings that leave me lost for words, that completely defy description, and that was my reaction when I first set eyes on Selfridges Birmingham. It’s like an organic blob from a far-off planet, with 15,000 anodised aluminium discs covering most of the exterior.
It was the work of Future Systems, a husband (Czech Jan Kaplicky) and wife (Welsh-born Amanda Levete). I’ll go so far as to say that if you love 21st-century architecture, you should make an effort to see it (possibly on the same trip as the outstanding Coventry Cathedral, built nearby in the 1950s and 1960s).
Getting there: It’s on the corner of Moor Street and Park Street. It’s right across the street from Moor Street station, and a 5-minute walk from Birmingham New Street station.
Library of Birmingham
Another of the recently built landmarks in Birmingham, the new Library on Centenary Square was completed in 2013. It’s a remarkable and unique building, one I believe deserves to be considered one of the most beautiful libraries in Europe.
The exterior of the Library is its most striking feature. It is entirely made of glass, and decorated with a pattern of interlocking steel circles that is meant to recall Birmingham’s industrial past. It also gives the appearance of the building being wrapped in fabric. The colours of the building, including the blue glass and golden roof turret, for me also evoke more exotic places, possible a mosque somewhere in the Middle East.
The Library, designed by Francine Houben, houses the Shakespeare Memorial Room, one of the best resources on the Bard in the world. This room, originally completed in 1882, was retained from the previous building, the former Birmingham Central Library, and incorporated into the new design.
The Library of Birmingham is open from 11.00 am to 7.00 pm Mondays and Tuesdays, and 11.00am to 5.00 pm Wednesdays to Saturdays. It’s closed on Sundays.
Getting there: The West Midlands Metro tram stops across Centenary Square at the Library stop. It’s in Zone 1, two stops from the Grand Central and Birmingham New Street stop.
Birmingham New Street Station
If you’re travelling through Birmingham New Street station, you won’t see much change from when I first passed this way around 40 years ago. But if you alight, and head upstairs to ground level from the underground platforms, you’ll see that it has changed beyond recognition. When we recently arrived, for a moment I thought I’d got off at the wrong stop.
The concourse is much larger, lighter and airier, and you’re also greeted by the sight of Ozzy The Bull (more on him in the following section). The Grand Central shopping mall – formerly the Palisades – adjoins the station.
From outside, the transformation is just as radical. Gone is the drab 1960s concrete exterior. Instead there’s now a bright mainly glass façade which reflects the surrounding buildings, an enormous improvement on what was there previously.
Ozzy The Bull, Birmingham New Street Station
Ozzy The Bull is a mechanical bull built for the 2022 Commonwealth Games which were hosted by Birmingham. The 2.5 tonne beast was originally placed in Centenary Sqyuare, but eventually removed.
Then in 2023 he was rehomed in the concourse of New Street station. He’s over 30 feet tall, and named after recently departed Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne, one of the city’s most famous figures.
Birmingham Landmarks – Historic Sites
Birmingham Cathedral
Birmingham is surrounded by smaller cities – Hereford, Worcester, Lichfield, Coventry – with considerably larger, better-known cathedrals. Birmingham Cathedral is a little off the usual Cathedral trail, but I was delighted to finally visit it, over 40 years after first reading about it.
St Philip’s Cathedral is the third smallest Cathedral in Britain (St Asaph Cathedral in North East Wales is the smallest). It’s also one of just two English Baroque Cathedrals (St Paul’s Cathedral in London is the other).
Birmingham Cathedral was built in the early 18th century to accommodate the growing population of the city as it expanded in the early stages of the Industrial Revolution. It was designed by Thomas Archer, who also went on to build St John’s Smith Square, one of the finest Baroque churches in London and, more famously, Chatsworth House. It was initially a parish church, elevated to Cathedral status in 1905.
The church is strongly influenced by Italian Baroque, and the one post-Baroque element that stands out is the stained glass. The Pre-Raphaelite artist Sir Edward Burne-Jones created four windows in the chancel (the area around the high altar) of the church, and they’re among his most striking works, the deep reds and blues adding to the atmosphere of this fine Cathedral.
Getting there: The Cathedral is on St Philip’s Place and Colmore Row, no more than a 5-minute walk from Birmingham New Street station. The West Midlands Metro tram passes even closer, and the stops at Corporation Street and Grand Central are even closer.
Birmingham Back To Backs
Much of historic 18th and 19th-century Birmingham was destroyed during the Blitz of 1940-41, with further bombing raids continuing until 1943. So it’s a joy to find these houses, a time portal to take you back to see how the working class population of Birmingham lived in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
These houses, built between 1802 and 1831, are only surviving back-to-back houses in Birmingham. The rest of them – which comprised large parts of the city, were demolished, with residents moved into newer housing. Some survive elsewhere in the UK – one of my old friends used to live in one such house, in an area of streets known as ‘the Harolds’, in Leeds, Yorkshire.
The houses were divided in the middle, so one family would live in one half, and another family would occupy the other part. The houses had little natural light, conditions were terribly cramped for larger families, and sanitation was very poor, with filthy communal toilets, and water coming from a single shared tap in a courtyard in the rear of the houses. Fans of the Peaky Blinders TV series would find this place fascinating.
The Birmingham Back to Backs are owned and operated by the National Trust. You can only visit as part of a guided tour, which you need to book in advance here.
Getting there: It’s on the corner of Hurst Street and Inge Street, a 5-minute walk south of Birmingham New Street station via Station Street and Hill Street.
St Martin’s In The Bull Ring Church
St Martin’s Church is one of the oldest landmarks in Birmingham, the lower part of the tower most likely dating from the 16th century. It is the original parish church of the city of Birmingham, and the present building mostly dates from the 19th-century rebuild. The spire was added to the tower in 1781.
Like the nearby Cathedral, the church also has a stained-glass window by Birmingham-born artist Edward Burne-Jones. Serendipitously the window was removed the day before a 1941 bombing raid in which all the other windows in the church were destroyed.
Getting there: The church is on the corner of Moat Lane and Edgbaston Street. It’s a 5-10-minute walk from Birmingham New Street station, which you can mostly do via the Grand Central and Bull Ring shopping malls. You just need to cross Smallbrook Queensway between the two complexes.
Old Joe Clock Tower, Birmingham University
The Joseph Chamberlain Memorial Clock Tower dominates the campus of the University of Birmingham, two miles from the city centre in the suburb of Edgbaston.
It is named after the first Chancellor of the University, Joseph Chamberlain, a Liberal politician who also served as Secretary of State for the Colonies. He was the father of future Prime Minister Neville, who infamously signed the 1938 Munich Agreement with Adolf Hitler allowing the carving-up of Czechoslovakia.
The tower is the tallest free-standing clock tower in the UK, 100 metres (329 feet) in height. Its original design was modified so that it resembled the Torre del Mangia, the tower of the Palazzo Pubblico in Siena, Italy.
It is part of an ensemble of fine brick campus buildings from the early 20th century. Along with the Universities in Liverpool, Manchester (my alumnus), Bristol, Leeds and Sheffield, it was one of what became known as the ‘red brick universities’, new civic universities that were founded in major English cities in the mid- to late-19th century.
Getting there: Train to University, then a 5-minute walk to the centre of the campus.
Hall of Memory
The 1920s Hall of Memory, built to commemorate the fallen and injured of World War I, also stands on Centenary Square, one of two large civic squares in the centre of Birmingham.
It was built in Neoclassical style by local architect S N Cooke, and originally had a Greek-style colonnade attached. This was removed in 1995 as Centenary Square was redeveloped, and rebuilt at the nearby St Thomas Peace Garden.
Getting there: The Library tram stop, the same as for the Library of Birmingham.
Gas Street Basin And Birmingham Canals
Birmingham grew into a metropolis thanks to its industry, and the most visible reminder of this history is its network of over 100 miles of canals. At one point there were an additional 60 miles of canal, but these have been covered or paved over.
The Gas Street basin is the hub of the Birmingham Canal Network (BCN), and also the place where the Worcester and Birmingham Canal meets the main line of the BCN. Initially there was a barrier between the two canals, as the BCN didn’t want the other Canal to benefit from its water supply.
Birmingham’s canals – the earliest of which date from the 1770s – have long been a place of leisure rather than industry. The Gas Street Basin still has some classic red- brick buildings from the industrial period, but most of it is now given over to hotels, bars and restaurants.
Getting there: The Library tram stop, in Zone 1, is a 2-3-minute walk away from the northern end of the Gas Street Basin.
Town Hall and Council House
My final two landmarks in Birmingham can be found on Victoria Square, the other major square in the centre of Birmingham.
Birmingham Town Hall is very much inspired by Roman temple architecture. My initial impression was that it strongly resembled the Maison Carrée, the wonderfully preserved temple in Nimes, southern France – the only difference was that it is wider at the front entrance.
On further research, I learned that it was inspired by another Roman Temple – the Temple of Castor and Pollux, of which scant remains still stand in the Roman Forum. The Town Hall was built in the 19th century, and was one of the first Roman-inspired buildings in the Uk from that period.
It is an outstanding concert hall, which has hosted the likes of Charles Dickens, Paul Robeson, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Not many places have a roll call like that!
Birmingham Council House is the city’s administrative headquarters, and part of the building also houses the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. It was built between 1879 and 1881 to the Classical-influenced design of Yeoville Thomason, and as soon as it was completed, it had to be extended.
Getting there: The West Midlands Metro tram stops at Town Hall, in Zone 1.
Places To Visit Near Birmingham
Birmingham is a short drive from the border with Wales, a country that has long been popular with visitors from the Midlands. And there are many places to explore in the border area, which is also known as the Welsh Marches. My guide to the Best Places To Visit In The Welsh Borders is the ideal place to start, covering the entire England-Wales border from the Bristol Channel in the south to the Irish Sea in the north.
Additional articles including Things To Do In Hereford and 21 Best Things To Do In Chester cover some of the places in the region in more depth.
It’s little more than an hour’s drive southwest along the M5 to the West Country, grom the Cotswold Hills in the north to Bath, Somerset and eventually Devon further south. Bath is one of the best places to visit in Britain – take a look at my guides to spending One Day In Bath and the 12 Most Beautiful Streets In Bath – a photo guide to the terraces and townscape of the World Heritage city. My guide to the best places to visit near Bath and Bristol is also packed with places to inspire you.
Further to the south, check out my articles on the Best Things To Do In Wells Somerset, the 12 Best Things To Do In Exeter, the lovely county town of Devon, and my guide to Visiting Exeter Cathedral.
Tours In Birmingham
There are some great guided tours of Birmingham which will give you a great insight into the city, its sights and its history.
For a general overview of the city, this guided Birmingham walking tour is a great introduction to the city, including the Cathedral, Victoria Square and Centenary Square.
This guided Birmingham city and canals tour is another good option, covering some of the same places as the one above (but not the Cathedral), with more emphasis on the canals of Birmingham.
If your visit is partly inspired by the Peaky Blinders TV series set in Birmingham, this slogging gangs evening walking tour takes you to some of the street gangs’ haunts around the city.
Where To Stay In Birmingham
***** – The Grand Hotel Birmingham – the city’s outstanding luxury hotel, across the street from the Cathedral
**** – Hotel du Vin Birmingham – fine boutique 4-star in a late Victorian period eye hospital building
**** – Crowne Plaza Birmingham City by IHG – highly-rated luxury hotel on Central Square, close to all the main landmarks in Birmingham
**** – Edgbaston House – elegant boutique hotel in a fine suburban Georgian house
Landmarks in Birmingham UK – Final Thoughts
I hope you’ve enjoyed this guide to Birmingham’s landmarks. It’s rather off the main tourist trail for visitors to Britain, especially from overseas, so hopefully this article will give you a much better visual idea of what the city looks like. As you’ll see, not much of it looks like the set of the TV series Peaky Blinders, which is set there.
I’ve written a series of articles about landmarks in major cities and, indeed, some countries around Europe. Take a look at some of these – they make a good visual introduction to places you may be thinking of visiting:
12 Most Famous Landmarks In Bath – the Abbey, Roman Baths and much more
11 Great Landmarks in Bristol – Clifton Suspension Bridge, SS Great Britain, Banksy and more
50 Famous London Landmarks for the sights to seek out in the UK’s capital
UK Landmarks – the most famous sights in Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
58 Famous Landmarks In Wales – some of the best Castles, and most beautiful mountains and beaches in Europe
20 Famous Landmarks in Cardiff – Castles, Edwardian elegance and a wondrous Cathedral hidden in the suburbs
32 Famous Landmarks In France – from Paris to Provence, Albi to the Alps, and many more
Berlin Landmarks – the Berlin Wall, Brandenburg Gate and much more
Dresden Landmarks – 19 stunning sights on the Florence of the Elbe