Birmingham's museum and gallery offer is unusually strong for a city of its size. The Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery on Chamberlain Square has one of the world's finest collections of Pre-Raphaelite art, alongside Roman and medieval artefacts. The Ikon Gallery at Brindleyplace is one of Britain's leading contemporary art venues. The Barber Institute of Fine Arts at the University of Birmingham is a small but exceptional collection — Gainsborough, Degas, Renoir, Turner, Van Gogh — largely free and rarely crowded.
Aston Hall (a Jacobean mansion built 1618–35 for Sir Thomas Holte) and Soho House (18th-century home of Matthew Boulton, meeting place of the Lunar Society) are the two most important historic houses. The Jewellery Quarter is a genuine working district with over 100 jewellery businesses and a museum in a preserved factory. The canals at Gas Street Basin and Brindleyplace are good for walking; Birmingham has more miles of canal than Venice.
For live performance, the CBSO at Symphony Hall and the Birmingham Repertory Theatre are the leading venues. Cadbury World in Bournville (20 minutes by train) traces the history of the chocolate factory and remains one of the UK's most-visited attractions.