Birmingham Jewellery Quarter

The quarter grew from the eighteenth century into a dense grid of Georgian houses converted to workshops, and it still holds several hundred businesses in the trade, producing a substantial share of British-made jewellery; the Birmingham Assay Office, opened in 1773 after local makers petitioned to stop sending goods to Chester, hallmarks more items than any other office in the country and uses an anchor as its mark. The Museum of the Jewellery Quarter occupies the premises of Smith and Pepper, a family firm that simply stopped work in 1981, locked the door and left benches, tools, tea cups and half-finished work in place; it was opened as a museum with the contents untouched. The Chamberlain Clock stands at the crossroads and the Coffin Works nearby made fittings for royal funerals.

What you actually see

• Smith and Pepper - a workshop left exactly as its staff walked out in 1981.
• The Assay Office - hallmarking with an anchor mark since 1773.
• The working trade - several hundred firms still making in the same streets.
• The Coffin Works - a preserved factory that made high-end casket fittings.

When to go

Year-round; the museum runs guided tours at set times and the quarter's shops keep normal retail hours, mostly closing Sundays. Open studio weekends a few times a year get workshops to admit visitors.

Honest expectations

This is a working district, not a heritage park, and much of it is ordinary streets and trade counters. Museum access is by timed guided tour only. Some Georgian fabric has been replaced with flats, and building work is constant.

Nearby

Birmingham city centre is a short walk; the canal network runs through the quarter.