This is the ideal park for the entire family, offering a variety of facilities including boating lakes, playgrounds, tennis courts, tropical greenhouses and nature conservation areas. It is also the home of the Midland Arts Centre. A walking/bicycling route winds through the grounds that has recently been extended. The park also plays host to a variety of concerts, performances and the annual Fireworks Fantasia.
Situated across Church Hill Road, the St Alphege Parish Church is a historic church that dates back to the 12th Century. Over a period of time, it was refurbished several times; the bells and the church's shire were renovated too. It is a beautifully restored religious space and its ancient organ pipe organ, stained glass windows that belong to different time periods and the overall architecture is worth exploring. Apart from that, this church is home to community functions, choir concerts, youth groups, sermons, lectures and similar events.
Housing one of the world's finest collections of Pre-Raphaelite art, with works by Rossetti, Ford Madox Brown and Holman Hunt, Birmingham's principal museum and gallery is located in a stunning Victorian building. The museum displays works by British and European artists, along with collections of ceramics, sculpture, silver and stained glass. You can also find archaeological, ethnographic and local history exhibits, including Egyptian mummies.
The Black Country is a large industrial area to the north-west of Birmingham and this museum is a reminder of how things used to be here 100 years ago. It comprises many historic buildings, taken down from elsewhere and re-erected to make an authentic town of a century ago. Highlights include an old-fashioned funfair, a narrowboat ride and a trip down a coal mine, light is deliberately kept to the levels that would have been experienced by the miners. All children and adults can take a lesson in an 1840s school and tour round a Victorian sweetshop, chemist's, nail-making shop and stables, among many other exhibits.
This 80-hectare (200-acre) safari park is located less than a 60-minute drive from Birmingham. It will take you about an hour to drive through the animal reserves, where you can see elephants, rhinos, giraffes, lions, monkeys, wallabies and tigers. The amusement park has many different rides, and a wristband ticket that gives you access to all of them. Other attractions include a seal aquarium, reptile house and sea lion show. There are also plenty of themed places to eat and buy souvenirs.
The Rep is one of Britain's most successful and prestigious producing theaters, having achieved national recognition for quality and excitement. The theater offers an eclectic mix of productions. Past performances have included Noel Coward's Private Lives, Patrick Marber's award-winning Closer and a version of Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men. The theater also has a cafe bar, which is extremely popular in the evenings and on weekends, often offering live jazz.
There are numerous free brochures as well as more in-depth guides for sale here. You can also buy tickets for theater productions and other events. Don't worry if your English isn't great as the staff are multilingual. Birmingham Visitor Information Center is situated in the heart of the city center, about five minutes' walk from New Street station.
In the Thomas Gardens, which lie at the center of Holloway Circus to the south of the city center, is a statue to Hebe: for those who don't know their mythology, she was the daughter of the Greek deities Zeus and Hera. She was the goddess of the blossoming maturity of youth, and her life-sized reclining figure gazes into a pool with a small fountain below her. She has been gazing into her pool since 1957, which was when she was placed here to commemorate the completion of the city's inner ring road, and remains an attractive diversion.
Montpellier Gallery is modern gallery which houses the work of contemporary artists most of whom are British. You are very welcome to browse in the gallery's three rooms each displaying a range of individual pieces. For example, there are prints by artists such as Roy Fairchild, exquisite glass confections by glass maker Peter Layton and more paintings, prints, ceramics and jewelery than you can take in. If nothing catches your eye, you can always commission a one-off piece from many of the artists on show here. Please call for open hours.
Firs Gardens, a triangular-shaped garden, bound by Evesham Place and Grove Road, is named after Grove House that stood nearby. Despite the hum of passing traffic, Firs Gardens retains an air of peace and tranquility. What is more, as they are a little way away from the town center, they are rarely crowded. If you find yourself meandering here, look out for the rose bed which is dedicated to the memory of the "Red Beret" airborne divisions.
Also known as The Saxon Sanctuary, St Peter's Church, with its architectural influences from various periods in time, has been described as an epitome in stone of the history of the Church of England. Its Saxon tower and sanctuary, dating back to the 10th Century or earlier, make this parish church one of the most ancient buildings in Shakespeare Country. Whilst you are here, make sure that you visit the barn-roofed Lady Chapel. This features an exhibition tracing the history of this corner of Warwickshire at around the time of the first millennium, as recounted in the tale of Wagen, the local thegn (clan chief).
Although suppressed by an Act of Parliament in 1559, some Roman Catholic congregations continued to worship in private. Almost three hundred years later, following the Roman Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829 and the gradual lifting of restrictions including the re-establishment of dioceses in 1850, the time was right for a place of public worship to emerge. As a result, St. Gregory's was conceived in 1849 and, after overcoming various difficulties along the way, was born in 1866. Designed by the internationally renowned architect, Edward Welby Pugin, it was enthusiastically welcomed by the people of Stratford as a beautiful ornament to the town.