Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Trinity Rd., Aston (10- to 15-min. walk from Aston or Witton train stations).
&
0121/675-4722.
www.
bmag.org.uk/aston-hall. Free admission. Apr-Oct Tues-Sun noon-4pm. Bus: 65, 104, and 105 stop
nearby in Lichfield Rd.
Barber Institute of Fine Arts
MUSEUM Don't be put off by the stark,
stone-and-brick building that houses the Barber Institute collection: It is one of the
finest small art museums in England. The choice selection of paintings includes
works by Bellini, Botticelli, Bruegel, Canaletto, Delacroix, Gainsborough, Gauguin,
Murillo, Renoir, Rubens, Turner, Van Gogh, and Whistler.
University of Birmingham (just off Edgbaston Park Rd., near the University's East Gate, 2
1
⁄
2
miles south
of the city center).
&
0121/414-7333.
www.barber.org.uk. Free admission. Mon-Sat 10am-5pm; Sun
noon-5pm. Bus: 61, 62, or 63 from the city center.
Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery
MUSEUM Known chiefly for its col-
lection of pre-Raphaelite paintings (including works by Ford Maddox Brown, Dante
Gabriel Rossetti, Edward Burne-Jones, and Holman Hunt), the gallery also houses
exceptional paintings by English watercolor masters from the 18th century. In addi-
tion, there is a museum section with an Egyptian mummy, plus tools and artifacts that
are 400,000 years old. Completed in 1885, the elegant Victorian building that houses
the museum is almost as interesting as the collections inside it. The museum is
instantly recognized by its “Big Brum” clock tower.
Chamberlain Square.
&
0121/303-1966.
www.bmag.org.uk. Free admission; varying charges for spe-
cial exhibitions. Mon-Thurs and Sat 10am-5pm; Fri 10:30am-5pm; Sun 12:30-5pm.
Black Country Living Museum
MUSEUM Much of the area immediately sur-
rounding Birmingham is called the Black Country (after the black smoke that bil-
lowed over the area during the iron-working era). That period is commemorated at
the Black Country Living Museum in Dudley, a suburban town about 10 miles
northwest of central Birmingham. The museum occupies a sprawling landscape in
the South Staffordshire coal fields, an early forge of the Industrial Revolution, and
recreates what it was like to work and live in the Black Country of the 1850s. An
electric tramway takes visitors to a thick underground coal seam, and trolleys move
through a reconstructed industrial village with a schoolhouse, anchor forge, working
replica of a 1712 steam engine, and trade shops.
Tipton Rd., Dudley (3 miles north of junction 2 exit on the M5; parking £2). Tipton train station, on the
Birmingham to Wolverhampton line, is 1 mile from the museum.
&
0121/557-9643.
www.bclm.co.uk.
Admission £14 adults, £11 seniors, £7.10 children 5-16, £36 family ticket. Mar-Oct daily 10am-5pm; Nov-
Dec daily 10am-4pm; Jan-Feb Wed-Sun 10am-4pm.
Cadbury World
FACTORY TOUR Chocoholics beware—this is the British
home of all things cocoa. It's not quite Willie Wonka's Chocolate Factory, but it comes
pretty close. The exhibition inside contains 14 themed zones, starting with the origins
of chocolate in Aztec Mexico, and ending, unsurprisingly, with a vast store so
crammed with rare and special-edition chocolate you'll be tempted to take out a small
loan. The only part of the actual factory you get to see is the packaging plant, where
chocolate is wrapped and put into boxes for distribution.
Linden Rd., Bournville (follow the signs from M5 junctions 2 and 4, or M42 junction 2).
&
0844/880-
7667.
www.cadburyworld.co.uk. Tickets £14 adults, £11 seniors and students, £10 children 4-15, £43
family ticket. Feb-Dec Mon-Fri 10am-3pm, Sat-Sun 10am-4pm. Closed Jan; call ahead to confirm
seasonal changes. 15-min. walk from Bournville train station (Cross-City Line from Birmingham New
Street station).
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