Museum of the Jewellery Quarter

The Museum of the Jewellery Quarter stands in Hockley, Birmingham, on Vyse Street. It occupies a former gold-jewellery workshop that once belonged to Smith and Pepper. The building itself is a preserved example of a working jewellery factory from the 20th century. The museum belongs to the Birmingham Museums Trust, which runs nine museums across the city. In 2008 it was ranked third best free tourist attraction in Europe by TripAdvisor. The museum preserves a complete workshop as it was left in 1981 when the owners retired. Tools remain on benches, overalls hang on coat hooks, and even cups of tea and jars of jam stand untouched. It tells the 200-year story of Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter, once the centre of Britain’s jewellery trade. Exhibits include coffin fittings alongside everyday jewellery. The museum also starts the self-guided walking tour of the district. Visitors find the original workshop floor with its benches and machinery. Overalls still hang where workers left them decades ago. Display cases show rings, chains and coffin fittings made in the quarter. The walking tour leads through nearby streets lined with jewellery workshops and shops. The building itself reflects over eighty years of unchanged craft practice.