The Burne-Jones windows
Four stained-glass windows designed by Edward Burne-Jones and made by Morris & Co., saved from the 1940 bombing and fully conserved in 2023.
Four stained-glass windows are the real reason to step inside, not the building around them. They were designed by Edward Burne-Jones, Birmingham-born, baptised in this very church and one of the pillars of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, and made by Morris & Co. between 1885 and 1897: three behind the altar at the east end and one at the west. Taken down for safekeeping before bombs gutted the church in November 1940, they came back with the 1948 restoration, and in 2023 they emerged from more than five hundred working days of cleaning and repair with their colours visibly brighter than before. The building itself began as a parish church in the English Baroque manner, designed by Thomas Archer, built between 1711 and 1715 and consecrated that year, though the tower's dome was only finished in 1725; it became a cathedral in 1905, when the Diocese of Birmingham was created. That is why it is one of the smallest cathedrals in England: a single bright hall with slender columns and wooden galleries, topped by an elegant domed tower that looks down Colmore Row. Anyone expecting York or Canterbury will be surprised by the scale; anyone who knows in advance will find a calm room that needs no more than twenty or thirty minutes. Entry is by donation, with no ticket and no booking, and the doors are open every day, from 07:20 on weekdays and 08:20 at weekends until around five, with short services that may limit wandering or photography for a few minutes. Access to the nave is step-free and pushchairs roll in easily, but there are no visitor toilets outside services and events, so plan around the station or the shopping centres. A free self-guided tour on the Bloomberg Connects app, which the cathedral uses as its visitor guide, explains the windows if you want the stories behind them. The churchyard around it, which Brummies call Pigeon Park, is honestly the liveliest part: lawns and benches filled with office workers at lunchtime, and a perfect pause between New Street station (a five-minute walk) and Victoria Square or the Jewellery Quarter. In summer sit outside for half an hour; in the wet winter step in to warm up, look at the glass, and move on. Not a destination to build a day around, but a stop worth making if you are already in the city centre.
Four stained-glass windows designed by Edward Burne-Jones and made by Morris & Co., saved from the 1940 bombing and fully conserved in 2023.
Thomas Archer's domed tower, completed in 1725, is the best of the building from outside and worth a look even if you never go in.
The green churchyard is a pleasant city-centre breather, packed with office workers at lunchtime in summer.
Colmore Row, Birmingham B3 2QB
No. It is a small cathedral you can see in twenty minutes and it is no rival to York or Canterbury. But if you are in central Birmingham between New Street station and the Jewellery Quarter, step in for a few minutes to see the Burne-Jones windows; entry is free and the churchyard is a good place to let children run around.
The nave is step-free with automatic doors, so pushchairs are no problem. There are no visitor toilets outside services and events, though, so use the facilities at New Street station or Grand Central before you come.