Romantic things to do in Birmingham

A visit to the dramatic redevelopment of the glass-covered Bullring shopping centre should be first on your list of romantic things to do in Birmingham. There are endless shops of your favourite chain stores here to satisfy your shopping needs. There are also jewellery and clothes shops such as Pandora and Reiss if you want to treat your partner to a special treat.

Stroll south along Gas Street Basin and the water’s edge to come to the Mailbox, an exclusive complex of designer shops and eateries, and the home of BBC Birmingham. There are also some lovely hotels in the area for a romantic stay in the city. Indico serves some tasty Indian food while Harvey Nichols Brasserie and Bar Harvey Nichols Brasserie and Bar serves seafood, steak and tasty salads.

Birmingham’s long-established Jewellery Quarter Jewellery Quarter is located to the northwest of Snow Hill station. Buckle-and toy-makers first colonized this area in the 1750s, opening the way for hundreds of silversmiths, jewellers and goldsmiths, and today there are still several hundred jewellery-related companies in the district. Most of the jewellery shops are concentrated along Vittoria Street and its northerly continuation, Vyse Street.

The pedestrianised area around Centenary Square leads on to Gas Street Basin, once the hub of a transport network on Birmingham’s canals - the aggregate length of which is greater than the canals of Venice. This part of Birmingham has now been revamped as a district of bars and restaurants known as Brindleyplace

A short bus or train journey from the city centre is the University of Birmingham at Edgbaston, home of the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, an Art Deco building housing an unmissable collection of paintings, from the Renaissance artists to the Impressionists. The museum also houses one of the finest collections of Byzantine coins anywhere in Europe.

On the other side of Victoria Square, a bridge crosses a section of Queensway to the Hall of Memory and Centenary Square, the setting for the huge International Convention Centre. Its Symphony Hall has been acclaimed as one of the world’s finest auditoriums. Towering above the square, the 10-storey Library of Birmingham - one of the largest in Europe - is housed in an eye-catching building, with great views of the city from its lofty outdoor terraces and crowning gold dome.

Central Birmingham has a bevy of first-rate restaurants with a string of smart venues springing up. Birmingham’s gastronomic speciality is the balti, a delicious Kashmiri stew cooked and served in a small wok-like dish called a karahi, eaten with naan bread instead of cutlery. The original balti houses are concentrated out in the suburbs of Balsall Heath, Moseley and Sparkhill to the south of the centre, which is where you should head if a balti whets your appetite. Shababs Balti is also a top choice.