Welcome to Birmingham

Once an industrial powerhouse, the "Workshop of the World" is now an important financial and services centre. Top visitor attractions include the Think Tank, the Bullring shopping centre and the chocoholics paradise of Cadbury World.

Birmingham is also for music lovers: its vibrant jazz scene, the more classical Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and the National Exhibition Centre, host to the biggest names of today's UK music scene.
Fans of Lord of the Rings will know that Author JRR Tolkien grew up in Sarehole, south Birmingham, which in his fiery imagination soon became the inspiration for the hobbits' Shire.