The Pre-Raphaelite galleries
The world's largest public holding of Burne-Jones, Rossetti and Millais, rehung after the restoration and looking its best in decades.
The largest public collection of Pre-Raphaelite paintings anywhere in the world is not in London or Paris but in an industrial city in the English Midlands, inside a Victorian civic building crowned by a clock tower the locals call 'Big Brum'. Burne-Jones, Rossetti and Millais fill galleries that reopened after roughly two years of essential building works, and the upshot is that the collection now looks better than it has in decades: saturated colour, dreaming faces, walls given room to breathe. The second surprise sits next door. Birmingham's share of the Staffordshire Hoard, the biggest haul of Anglo-Saxon gold ever found, was pulled out of a ploughed field by a man with a metal detector in 2009. The pieces are small, sword fittings and garnet-inlaid ornaments, but the craftsmanship, thirteen centuries old, rewards anyone who leans in close. From there you climb to the domed Round Room and walk the Industrial Gallery with its painted ironwork balconies, where the Edwardian Tearoom serves light meals under a high glass roof; the space itself is worth a pause even if you are not hungry. A plain word of caution: the museum is not finished. It reopened in phases from October 2024, the Birmingham history galleries followed in May 2025, but the level 2 art galleries and the level 3 ancient history galleries were still shut when we wrote this. Anyone arriving for a full day will be done in two hours at most, which, frankly, is about right for a family exploring the city centre. Entry is free with no booking, Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 to 17:00, closed Mondays outside school holidays and bank holidays. The Wild City gallery was built for children and families with a playful, hands-on feel; there are lifts and baby-changing facilities, and pushchairs come in easily through the lift entrance on the Gas Hall side. It is two minutes on foot from Victoria Square and five from New Street station, and the ideal refuge on a wet afternoon, of which Birmingham has plenty.
The world's largest public holding of Burne-Jones, Rossetti and Millais, rehung after the restoration and looking its best in decades.
Anglo-Saxon gold thirteen centuries old, sword fittings and garnet inlay, dug out of a ploughed field in 2009.
A grand dome, then a Victorian gallery of iron balconies under a glass roof where the tea and light meals come with a setting worth lingering in.
Chamberlain Square, Birmingham B3 3DH
Yes if you are already in the city centre, no if you would be travelling specially for it. What is open now, the Pre-Raphaelites, the Staffordshire Hoard, the Round Room and the Birmingham history galleries, fills an enjoyable hour or two for free, but the level 2 art galleries and level 3 ancient history rooms are still shut, so do not plan a whole day around it.
More than the name suggests. The Wild City galleries were built for children and families around stories of nature in the city, there are lifts and baby-changing facilities, and a pushchair gets in through the lift entrance on the Gas Hall side. The paintings will lose them after twenty minutes, so build the visit around the family gallery and the gold hoard and finish in the tearoom.