Birmingham - City Museum and Art Gallery

The Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery, designed by H. Yeoville and opened by HRH the Prince of Wales, later Edward VII, in 1885, is one of the finest in the country outside London. Its art treasures include a matchless collection of Pre-Raphaelites (Ford Madox Brown, Arthur Hughes, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and others), as well as paintings from the 17th to 19th centuries, among them Canaletto's picture of Warwick Castle (1748), Lely's portrait (1654) of Oliver Cromwell, Victorian works by David Cox, the Birmingham landscape painter, and modern art - pictures by Wendy Ramshaw and sculptures by Henry Moore, Rodin and James Tower.

There are also interesting displays related to the city's history, ranging from medieval coins and historic paintings to Cadbury's chocolate products and turn-of-the-century modes of transport. Other sections are devoted to archaeological finds dating back to the Stone Age and superb 17th to 19th century silver. The Pinto Collection contains 6,000 toys and other items (including "love spoons"), all of them made of wood.