As Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery marks its 140th anniversary, a new tour is revealing secrets hidden high above the public galleries. The recently launched Hidden Spaces tours invite visitors to explore the normally off-limits areas of the iconic building, uncovering a unique and gritty narrative of the city's past, etched into the very fabric of the structure.
Uncovering Working-Class Stories in the Rafters
The tours guide guests through grand wrought-iron passageways, former stables used as wartime mortuaries, and up into the lofty spaces above the famous Round Room. Here, visitors can examine the intricate dome structure and its ingenious lighting. But for the eagle-eyed, the real treasure is the historical graffiti scratched into brickwork and metal girders by the working-class Brummies and specialists who built and maintained the museum.
While some markings are simple pencil sketches or hastily scribbled names, the tour guides point out that the predominant theme is football rivalry. On a girder supporting the Round Room's resplendent dome, the blunt declaration "Villa are s****" is carved, accompanied by a proclamation of "B'ham City!". In a classic act of terrace retaliation, the swear word has been scratched out by another hand, which added the phrase "Scum of Brum" above the Birmingham City slogan.
A Timeless Birmingham Beef Preserved in Metal and Brick
Staff leading the tours reveal that even ruder graffiti and accompanying illustrations can be found further along the roof space – artwork unlikely to be displayed alongside the Pre-Raphaelite masterpieces downstairs. It is not definitively known whether these markings were made by the original builders 140 years ago or by maintenance workers over the subsequent decades.
Regardless of their exact age, they offer an amusing and poignant reminder that some core elements of Birmingham's identity, like its fierce football divisions, are enduring. These hidden stories provide an authentic, grassroots counterpoint to the formal cultural narratives presented in the galleries below, which house treasures from Ozzy Osbourne's Grammys to Epstein's statue of Lucifer.
More Than Just Graffiti: Preserving Heritage for the Future
The Hidden Spaces tours are running throughout the year, with a special Dickens-themed Christmas edition that showcases a giant festive watercolour. The initiative coincides with the museum's wider fundraising campaign to protect and preserve Birmingham's heritage spaces for future generations.
Beyond the graffiti, the tours offer access to spectacular artworks kept in storage and provide a fascinating insight into the building's history and mechanics. The tours celebrate the museum's milestone birthday by highlighting not just its public collection, but the unofficial legacy left by the people who constructed and cared for it, ensuring their voices, however crudely inscribed, are not forgotten.
