Birmingham

Birmingham is the metropolitan district at the heart of the West Midlands. It grew as a centre for metalworking and manufacturing during the Industrial Revolution, a pattern still visible in canal basins, warehouses and former factories that now mix with offices, shops and housing. The city sits on a dense rail network with Birmingham New Street station linking regional and national services, and a canal system that runs through the centre and inner suburbs, carrying more miles of waterway than some European cities. Local institutions include universities, civic buildings and museums that reflect industrial and civic history.

Neighbourhoods inside the district include the Jewellery Quarter, where a preserved workshop forms the core of the Museum of the Jewellery Quarter and where small manufacturers continue metal trades. Other long-standing features are rows of back-to-back houses retained as heritage sites and pockets of post-war housing and Victorian terraces. Street patterns and building types shift quickly from one ward to the next, so blocks can contain light industry, retail streets, and residential terraces within a short walk.