United Kingdom

Birmingham

The International Convention Centre (ICC) Birmingham and its crown jewel, Symphony Hall, represent cutting-edge acoustic engineering combined with classical design principles. Designed by the Percy Thomas Partnership and Renton Howard Wood Levin, the ICC brought world-class concert facilities to the city's cultural heart at Centenary Square. Symphony Hall's design was profoundly shaped by 19th-century shoebox concert hall archetypes, specifically Vienna's Musikverein and Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, which emphasize rectangular forms, parallel walls, and high ceilings to foster audience intimacy and superior sound projection. The New York-based Artec Group, under acoustician Russell Johnson, employed computer modeling to simulate sound propagation and reflection patterns, representing cutting-edge acoustic science. Innovative features include an acoustic canopy that raises and lowers above the stage with dampening panels that extend or retract to match sound to musical style, vibration isolation mounting the entire hall on rubber cushions, and railway isolation preventing vibrations from the track beneath from entering the hall. In 2016, concert hall acoustics expert Leo Beranek ranked Symphony Hall as the finest in the United Kingdom and the seventh best in the world, placing it among elite concert halls alongside Vienna Musikverein and Amsterdam Concertgebouw. The hall combines classical proportions with modern technology, ensuring exceptional sound quality regardless of seating position.

International Convention Centre (ICC) Birmingham

Chamberlain Square in Birmingham is built around the pinnacled memorial fountain to Joseph Chamberlain, with the Town Hall's colonnade on one side. It links the library and the museum.

Chamberlain Square

Birmingham Town Hall stands as one of Britain's most impressive neoclassical structures, designed by Joseph Hansom (who later invented the famous Hansom Cab) and Edward Welch. Modeled after the Roman Temple of Castor and Pollux, the building features 40 Corinthian columns, each 50 feet high, carved from Anglesey marble, creating a distinctive silhouette that defines the cityscape. The exterior reproduces the Roman temple's signature feature: a tall rusticated stone podium that elevates the structure and emphasizes its civic importance. From 1834, the Town Hall hosted Birmingham's famous Triennial Musical Festivals, three or four days of continuous music held morning, noon, and night. These prestigious events attracted major composers and raised funds for the General Hospital. In August 1846, Felix Mendelssohn traveled to Birmingham to conduct the world premiere of his oratorio "Elijah," a major coup elevating the city's cultural prestige. Mendelssohn had previously attended the 1837 festival to conduct and play the organ; a bust of the great composer is housed in the hall. The hall also commissioned works from Dvořák, Elgar, and other major composers. The building stands as a powerful statement of Victorian civic pride and cultural ambition. With Questo, discover how industrial Birmingham built a world-class musical venue.

 Birmingham Town Hall

Victoria Square steps down through Birmingham's civic centre in front of the Council House, past the reclining bronze figure in a water channel that the city nicknamed the Floozie in the Jacuzzi. Antony Gormley's Iron:Man stands at the lower end. The steps double as seating whenever the sun is out.

Victoria Square

St Philip's Cathedral is an elegant Baroque church in the centre of Birmingham, notable for being one of the smallest and youngest cathedrals in England. It sits in its own tree-lined square, surrounded by the bustle of the city.

The church was built between 1711 and 1715, designed by Thomas Archer in a style influenced by the Italian Baroque churches he had seen on his Grand Tour. Unlike the more restrained English church architecture of the period, St Philip's has a warmth and theatricality that sets it apart. The tower, completed in 1725, was the tallest structure in Birmingham for decades.

St Philip's only became a cathedral in 1905, when the Diocese of Birmingham was created. Before that, it was simply a parish church, one of several serving the city's rapidly growing population.

The building's greatest treasures are its stained glass windows by Edward Burne-Jones, one of the leading figures of the Pre-Raphaelite movement. These windows, installed between 1885 and 1897, are among the finest examples of Pre-Raphaelite glass in the world. During World War II, they were removed for safekeeping just before the cathedral was gutted by a German bomb in November 1940. The building was restored and reopened in 1948, with the windows reinstalled.

Entry is free. If you're on a Questo quest through Birmingham, St Philip's is a stop where Italian design, Pre-Raphaelite art, and wartime resilience come together in a single building.

St. Philip's Cathedral

Centenary Square is Birmingham's cultural forecourt, bounded by the Library of Birmingham with its interlocking metal rings, Symphony Hall, and the domed Hall of Memory. The open paving and water features make it the city's gathering point.

Murder Mystery: Death in the Shadows in Birmingham