The former home of Matthew Boulton, the Birmingham industrialist and business partner of James Watt, who built Soho House in 1766 and used it as the meeting place of the Lunar Society — one of the most remarkable intellectual gatherings of the 18th century. The house is now a museum managed by Birmingham Museums, restored to its Boulton-era appearance.
The interior shows the life of a successful late-18th-century manufacturer and gentleman — well-furnished but not aristocratic, and full of practical scientific instruments alongside decorative objects. The garden has been restored to an approximation of its period design. Soho House is about 2 miles north of the city centre, in Handsworth; it requires a bus ride or taxi but is worth the journey for anyone interested in the Industrial Revolution or Enlightenment science.