Birmingham

Birmingham is England's second-largest city, a major industrial hub since the 18th century and home to the most culturally diverse population in Britain outside London. Long dismissed by those who haven't visited, it has been undergoing a genuine renaissance, and its hosting of the 2022 Commonwealth Games accelerated that transformation significantly. The Jewellery Quarter, a Victorian neighbourhood of workshops and showrooms, is one of Britain's most unusual and interesting urban areas — Birmingham still produces roughly 40% of all UK-manufactured jewellery. The Bullring shopping centre is famous for its futuristic Selfridges building wrapped in 15,000 aluminium discs. The Custard Factory in Digbeth is the creative industries hub. The Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery holds the world's finest collection of Pre-Raphaelite paintings. The food scene is Birmingham's great secret weapon. The Balti Triangle — a cluster of Kashmiri and Pakistani restaurants in Sparkhill, Balsall Heath and Sparkbrook — invented the Balti dish in the 1970s and still produces some of the finest South Asian cooking in the UK. Digbeth Dining Club is an excellent street food market. The canal network (Birmingham has more miles of canal than Venice) is increasingly well-developed for walks and waterside dining. The city is an excellent base for Shakespeare's Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwick Castle and the Cotswolds.