Explore Birmingham

Victoria Square is a pedestrianised square in central Birmingham between the Town Hall and the Council House, renamed in 1901 in honour of Queen Victoria. A statue of the queen by Thomas Brock stands here, and Dhruva Mistry's fountain The River, built when the square was remodelled in 1992–94, is known locally as the Floozie in the Jacuzzi.

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery occupies part of the Council House complex on Chamberlain Square; it opened in 1885 in a building by Yeoville Thomason, below the clock tower known as Big Brum. Its collections cover fine and decorative art, with many Pre-Raphaelite works, as well as archaeology, local history and the Anglo-Saxon Staffordshire Hoard.

Birmingham Town Hall is a concert hall on Victoria Square, opened in 1834 to designs by Joseph Hansom and Edward Welch. Modelled on the Temple of Castor and Pollux in Rome, it stands on a tall rusticated podium. Mendelssohn's Elijah and Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius had their premieres here; it reopened in 2007 after restoration.

St Philip's Cathedral is a Baroque church on Colmore Row in central Birmingham, designed by Thomas Archer and consecrated in 1715 as a parish church. It became the cathedral of the new Diocese of Birmingham in 1905. Inside are four stained-glass windows designed by Edward Burne-Jones, and its churchyard is a public green space.

The Library of Birmingham is the city's public library on Centenary Square, designed by the Dutch practice Mecanoo and opened by Malala Yousafzai in 2013. Its stacked blocks are wrapped in a filigree of interlocking metal rings, with garden terraces on the upper levels and the Victorian Shakespeare Memorial Room rebuilt on the top floor.

The National Sea Life Centre is an aquarium at Brindleyplace in central Birmingham, opened in 1996 beside the canal in a building designed by Norman Foster. It has more than 60 displays, a one-million-litre ocean tank crossed by a 360-degree underwater tunnel, a gentoo penguin habitat and a pair of northern sea otters.

LEGOLAND Discovery Centre Birmingham is an indoor LEGO attraction in the arena building on King Edwards Road, across the canal from Brindleyplace. Aimed at families with young children, it has build stations, a Miniland of Midlands landmarks made from over 1.5 million bricks, soft play, a 4D cinema and two rides; adults enter only with a child.

Thinktank is Birmingham's science museum, opened in 2001 in the Millennium Point building in the Eastside district and run by Birmingham Museums Trust. Four floors of hands-on exhibits and objects cover the city's industry and science, from stationary steam engines and locomotives to a Spitfire built in 1944, with a science garden outside and a planetarium.

Aston Hall is a Jacobean mansion in Aston, north Birmingham, designed by John Thorpe and built for Sir Thomas Holte between 1618 and 1635. Parliamentary troops attacked it in 1643, and cannon damage is still visible on the staircase. Owned by the city since 1864, it shows period rooms with furniture, paintings and textiles.

Cadbury World is a visitor attraction on Cadbury's Bournville factory site in south Birmingham, opened in 1990. A self-guided route through 14 zones tells the history of chocolate and of the Cadbury company with sets, animatronics, a 4D cinema and staff demonstrations, and a section on the history of the Bournville site.