Museum of the Jewellery Quarter
The Museum of the Jewellery Quarter is built around a perfectly preserved jewellery workshop offering a unique glimpse of working life in Birmingham’s famous Jewellery Quarter. When the proprietors of the Smith & Pepper jewellery manufacturing firm retired in 1981 they simply ceased trading and locked the door, unaware they would be leaving a time capsule for future generations.
Today the factory is a remarkable museum, which tells the story of the Jewellery Quarter and Birmingham’s renowned jewellery and metalworking heritage. Explore this extraordinary time capsule on a lively guided tour. Watch live demonstrations at the jewellers’ bench of the traditional skills of this fine trade and discover what it was like to work here.
The Pen Museum
The Pen Museum focuses on the important legacy of Birmingham’s 19th Century pen trade and its significant contribution to improving literacy throughout the world. Located in a former pen factory, built in 1863, where visitors experience writing with feather quills, reeds and steel nibs and can also make their own nib using traditional methods.
The Museum narrates the interesting lives, stories and important expertise of manufacturers, owners and workers that resulted in Birmingham once manufacturing 75% of the world’s pens. Explore the collection of over 5,000 objects related to the Birmingham Pen Trade.
The Coffin Works
This Grade II-listed building on the edge of the Jewellery District tells the story of Birmingham's last coffin-furniture factory and the Newman Brothers firm. Experience a time capsule - with its working machinery and unusual products - coffin handles and ornaments, linings and shrouds - left on the shelves and workbenches when the workforce set down their tools and left for the very last time.
Costumed guides will lead you around the factory where you will experience the sights, sounds and smells of factory life and hear stories about workers, owners and trade. The Newman Brothers factory is a wonderfully preserved example of Victorian engineering which produced some of the world’s finest coffin furniture, including the fittings for the funerals of Sir Winston Churchill, Joseph Chamberlain and the Queen Mother.
.J.W. Evans
Established in 1881, J. W. Evans is one of the most complete surviving historic factories in Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter. To walk into the factory today is to enter a lost industrial world.
Behind the frontage of four terraced houses, the workshops retain their original drop stamps and fly presses. They are packed with thousands of dies for the manufacture of silverware, as well as the whole of the working equipment, stock and records of the business.
The Hive
The Hive at New Standard Works is located on the ground floor of a grade II listed former jewellery manufactory, built in 1879.
Explore the building’s industrial heritage, and discover some of the trades, innovations and inventions of the Jewellery Quarter through creative exhibitions and installations.
Free entry to exhibitions. Free ‘hands-on’ craft activities available every day we are open.
We are proud to offer an inclusive and friendly environment to all our visitors. Everyone is welcome to enjoy our beautiful industrial building and discover the stories of its past.
Also, on the ground floor is The Hive Café & Bakery; serving delicious organic and freshly made food, featuring ingredients from the rooftop garden, and great coffee.
RBSA Gallery
The Royal Birmingham Society of Artists (RBSA) is an artist-led charity which supports artists and promotes engagement with the visual arts through a range of exhibitions, events and workshops.
The RBSA runs an exhibition venue - the RBSA Gallery - in Birmingham’s historic Jewellery Quarter, a short walk from the city centre. The gallery is open 7 days a week and admission to all our exhibitions is free.
St Pauls Church
St Pauls has been at the heart of the Jewellery Quarter since 1779. Throughout its history St Paul's has served the JQ as a place of worship, a place of education and welfare, a place of performance, a place where the skills and enterprise of the Birmingham JQ are celebrated, a place set apart for the JQ community of calm reflection and wellbeing.
St Paul's hosts various events across the arts from world renown to local talent and provides a unique space for the performing arts. The building is blessed with one of the best acoustics in the West Midlands with a seating capacity of up to 400 people.
Jewellery Quarter Pavement Trails
Explore the hidden histories of the Jewellery Quarter with two fantastic pavement trails. The Charm Bracelet Trail starts at the bottom of Newhall Hill (look out for the heart shaped charm!) and takes you on a visual journey around the heart of the Jewellery Quarter. The Findings Trail celebrates the varied achievements and stories of JQ residents and workers, starting on Newhall Street.
