Tickets can now be booked for Birmingham’s biggest celebration of heritage, history and unique buildings.

Running from Friday 8 to Sunday 17 September, Birmingham Heritage Week is a ten-day, city-wide festival shining a spotlight on Birmingham’s fascinating history, with some of the city’s most important heritage locations and unique buildings opening their doors for talks, tours, workshops, walks and much more.

Throughout Heritage Week, events will be taking place across Birmingham. There will be hundreds of different events, walks, talks and tours to choose from: cemeteries, canal tours, historic buildings, factories, museums, religious buildings including mosques, churches and cathedrals and outdoor heritage tours in local parks, neighbourhoods and conservation areas.

Recently announced events for 2023 include behind the scenes tours at the Alexandra Theatre, the Electric Cinema and a documentary at the Mockingbird Cinema exploring the role of Birmingham people in shaping cinema and television.

A special online talk will reveal more about Birmingham’s role in the birth of the World Snooker Championships. The tournament owes its humble beginnings to Birmingham, which hosted the first two finals in 1927 and 1928. In this talk, researcher Thomas Bartley tells the story of how Birmingham helped to launch the famed and prestigious competition and, with it, usher in the age of professional snooker.

A full programme in Sutton Coldfield includes an archaeology walk and heritage running tour in Sutton Park, a walk through the royal town with the Birmingham Ramblers, a magic lantern show, a Masonic Hall open morning and an open day at New Hall Water Mill.

Heritage Week participants can get active with the whole family by taking part in a led cycle ride from Kings Norton to Sarehole Mill – a 10-mile round trip.

In the Jewellery Quarter, the Birmingham Assay Office celebrates its 250th anniversary with an afternoon of activities at the Assay Office and in Digbeth there will be an exhibition at the Old Crown pub, introduced by Professor Carl Chinn who will be giving a talk on the rich history of the building.

Birmingham Proof House will be open for guided tours – the proof house has been in Birmingham since 1813 and is still a working gun testing facility.

A newcomer to Birmingham Heritage Week, West Midlands Fire Service Museum in Aston is taking part for the first time this year. It is the oldest Fire Station in Birmingham and now houses a volunteer-run fire service museum with vintage fire engines and equipment.

A five-mile walk from Kings Norton to the University of Birmingham with the Black Country Geological Society explores the little-known glacial erratic boulders of south Birmingham and the secrets of these remaining relics of our prehistoric heritage – made in a volcano and brought here by glacier half a million years ago.

Workshops with a heritage theme will include Victorian fashion illustration, historical fiction writing at the National Trust Back to Backs and poetry and short story writing at the Pen Museum.

For one special day, the West Midlands Police Museum will open its doors as ‘The Macabre Museum: Stories of Murder and Mayhem’.

If you have ever wanted to hear about some of the darker stories of the Lock Up’s history, or wanted to see some of the items in the collection that don’t normally get talked about and the people that go unmentioned, this is the event for you. You’ll hear tales of the real Peaky Blinders, Birmingham’s connection to Jack the Ripper and see some of the most notorious items in our archives. Due to the nature of the content of the tour, this event is restricted to over 18s only.

A new event for steam enthusiasts is a tour of Tyseley depot and behind-the-scenes guided tours of the original GWR 1908 built locomotive depot archaeology, locomotives and rolling stock.

Buildings offering guided tours include the landmark Rotunda building, The Council House, The Exchange, Blakesley Hall, Weoley Castle Ruins, Highbury Hall, Handsworth Old Town Hall, Tudor Merchant’s House and Old Grammar School, both in Kings Norton.

To book, visit: birminghamheritageweek.co.uk