Birmingham hoards art in unlikely places: an Art Deco concert hall on a campus holding a Van Gogh, a workshop where the kettle still sits where it was left in 1981, and Digbeth's warehouse walls repainted every summer. Three days, mostly free.
Robert Atkinson's 1939 Art Deco building on the University of Birmingham campus holds Van Gogh's 'Man Drinking', Monet, Degas, Rubens, Gainsborough and Turner in seven rooms. Open Tue–Sun 11:00–17:00; the concert hall hosts lunchtime recitals.
An Arts and Crafts villa of 1903 built for the Nettlefold family, with a Gertrude Jekyll-influenced seven-acre garden and a tea room in the old servants' wing. Ten minutes' walk from the Barber across the Edgbaston campus.
Contemporary art in the Gothic Revival Oozells Street Board School of 1877, converted by Levitt Bernstein in 1998. Three or four major shows a year across two floors, plus the Yorks café in the ground-floor cloister. Wed–Sun 11:00–17:00.
Thomas Archer's English Baroque church of 1715 holds four Edward Burne-Jones stained-glass windows made by Morris & Co — the Nativity, Crucifixion, Ascension and Last Judgement, all designed by a man baptised in this parish.
The Smith & Pepper factory closed in 1981 and the family simply locked the door — tea cups, ledgers and hand-cut dies untouched. Guided tours only, roughly hourly, with a working demonstration at the bench by a resident jeweller.
Birmingham's only surviving Georgian square, laid out in 1777, where Matthew Boulton and James Watt worshipped. The bar at 1000 Trades on Frederick Street pours Midlands cask ale and serves a short kitchen menu that changes monthly.
Founded by Barry Jackson in 1913 as Britain's first purpose-built repertory theatre; the current Centenary Square building has three stages and shares a foyer with the Library of Birmingham. Matinees Wed and Sat, tickets from about £15.
Home of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra since 1991 and built with a movable acoustic canopy and reverberation chambers that make it one of the most accurate concert halls in Europe. Around 270 events a year.
The densest concentration of large-format murals outside London, repainted each summer during Mural Fest. Floodgate Street, Gibb Street and the railway arches under Duddeston Viaduct carry work by Annatomix, Gent 48 and Title Sika.
Alfred Bird's former custard works, now studios for around 500 creative businesses plus independent record shops, the Mockingbird cinema and a weekend flea market in the yard around the blue Zellig building.
Eastside Projects on Heath Mill Lane is an artist-run public gallery testing experimental shows; BOM works at the seam of art, science and technology. Both free, both open roughly Thu–Sat afternoons — check current programmes before travelling.
Open since 1987 in Sparkbrook and still cooking balti over a fierce flame in the pressed steel dish, served with a naan the size of a bin lid. Bring your own alcohol; cash preferred; the room fills after evening prayers.