The Jewellery Quarter

A short bus ride northwest of the main city centre, lies Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter. The city still has a prosperous community of jewellers, a tradition that goes back to the mid 18th century when silversmiths, goldsmiths and jewellers began to set up their workshops in the area.

The Museum of the Jewellery Quarter is actually in the old workshop of the Smith & Pepper factory, which was left entirely as it was when it shut down in the 1980s. Even if you don't have a particular interest in things that glitter, it makes for an interesting couple of hours.

Nearby Soho House, was home to industrial pioneer Matthew Boulton and will give you an insight into how the more well heeled lived two hundred years ago.