The Town Hall
An 1834 Roman temple ringed by Corinthian columns that makes the finest facade on the square; the exterior is the point.
Road signs that give a distance to Birmingham are measuring to this exact spot. Victoria Square is the point from which the city is counted, and it is also where its three great streets, New Street, Colmore Row and Paradise Street, run into each other. Until the early 1990s it was a traffic junction; between 1992 and 1994 it was rebuilt as a stepped, paved pedestrian plaza and opened by Diana, Princess of Wales. What makes it worth the stop is the architecture around the edges rather than the paving. On the west side stands Birmingham Town Hall, finished in 1834 in the shape of a Roman temple ringed by Corinthian columns, Grade I listed and now a concert hall. On the north side is the Council House of 1879, all Victorian dome and carved frontage, with a clock tower locals call Big Brum. Between them sits Queen Victoria herself, a bronze whose original dates from 1901, and in the corner by the Town Hall a six-metre iron figure leans without a plinth: Antony Gormley's Iron:Man, removed in 2017 for the tram extension and returned in February 2022. The real celebrity is Dhruva Mistry's terraced fountain The River, which everyone calls the Floozie in the Jacuzzi. It was switched off in 2013 because of leaks and planted with flowers for years, then repaired and refilled in spring 2022 before the Commonwealth Games, and it has stopped more than once since then for weeks or months at a time. In other words you may find it flowing or dry depending on the month, so do not plan the visit around it. Be clear about what this is: not a destination but an orientation point, twenty minutes for a full circuit and a good photograph on the steps. The square is mostly level with steps and side ramps that suit a pushchair, and it is two minutes on foot from New Street station, on the natural walking route between the Bullring shopping centre and Brindleyplace on the canals. Next door on Chamberlain Square is Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, reopening in phases after years of works, so check what is open before you go. In winter the whole square becomes the Frankfurt Christmas Market from early November until just before Christmas, the largest German market outside Germany and Austria and by far the busiest time here; note that its stalls revolve around mulled wine and sausages, so it is a lights-and-crowds spectacle more than a dining stop for an Arab family.
An 1834 Roman temple ringed by Corinthian columns that makes the finest facade on the square; the exterior is the point.
The terraced fountain nicknamed the Floozie in the Jacuzzi, refilled in 2022 after nine dry years and still prone to stopping from time to time.
A six-metre leaning iron figure standing without a plinth by the Town Hall, back since February 2022 after almost five years in storage.
Victoria Square, Birmingham B1 1BD
Pass through it. It sits on the natural walking route between the Bullring, New Street station and Brindleyplace, so you will cross it anyway; twenty minutes and a photo on the steps are enough, and it should not anchor your day.
As a lights-and-crowds spectacle yes, and entry is free. But the stalls revolve around mulled wine and sausages, and weekend evenings are dense going with a pushchair, so pick a weekday afternoon and eat elsewhere.