Museum of…
The Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham
Louise Gray learns about 200 years of Birmingham’s jewellery-making and metalworking heritage
Where The Museum of the Jewellery Quarter (MJQ), one of nine venues run by the Birmingham Museums Trust, is at 75-80 Vyse Street in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter, the city’s historic centre of jewellery production and metalworking.
What “The museum is on the site of the former Smith and Pepper factory, which specialised in gold bracelets and bangles. It closed in 1981 after nearly 100 years of trading, leaving behind all its machinery, tools and papers,” says Barbara Nomikos, the museum team manager at MJQ.
Opened 1992. The factory lay untouched for nine years until it was bought by Birmingham City Council and transformed into a museum.
“Number 79 Vyse Street – the former Thomas L Mott jewellery maker – was rebuilt to provide visitor facilities and display space, and in 2009 the museum expanded into Number 80, which houses more gallery space and a temporary exhibition gallery and tea room,” Nomikos says.
Collection The main part comprises the factory workshops and offices. Visitors can see the machinery, tools, die-cutters, stamps and papers left behind, including the workers’ milk bill from 1899. Tours narrate the social history of the family and include demonstrations of the tools workers used.
There are two permanent galleries: The Story of the Jewellery Quarter contextualises Birmingham’s jewellery trade, while the Earth’s Riches gallery displays jewellery from across the world. Downstairs, a temporary space hosts changing exhibitions.
Highlights “The tours get visitors to take a step back in time – the factory is brought to life with the whirring of the belt drives and the thud of the drop stamp,” Nomikos says.
“The highlight is the jeweller’s bench, complete with tacked leather skins to catch the gold dust.” Help at hand There are five permanent front-of-house staff who deliver tours and operate the shop and tea room. Four volunteers regularly pitch in.
Budget The lion’s share of income comes from admission fees (adult tickets for the combined tour and galleries are £7; a gallery-only visit is £6; children are free). Further revenue comes from the tea room and shop.
Family activity days are run during school holidays and special events, such as the Halloween walk (30 October) around the quarter, are popular. Hiring out the museum also brings in income.
The temporary gallery is free to visit.
Sticky moment “This year, there was a freak rainstorm during a tour,” Nomikos says. “In the room known as Miss Olive’s office, staff desperately tried to rescue the 100-year-old papers from the water coming in through the roof, while diverting visitors. Thankfully, the objects were saved and the roof is being looked at.”
Survival tip “It is important to look at new ways of engaging audiences and generating income,” Nomikos says. “We are trying to do this by enhancing our corporate hire offer to include ‘crafternoon tea’ packages as well as craft and jewellery workshops.”
Visitors 30,000 a year.
Future plans The museum will be participating in Collecting Birmingham, a new exhibition that is part of a three- year project (2015-2018) run by Birmingham Museums and supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund.
There will be early-morning tours of Museum of the Jewellery Quarter at the Museums Association Annual Conference in Birmingham, 5-6 November
Where The Museum of the Jewellery Quarter (MJQ), one of nine venues run by the Birmingham Museums Trust, is at 75-80 Vyse Street in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter, the city’s historic centre of jewellery production and metalworking.
What “The museum is on the site of the former Smith and Pepper factory, which specialised in gold bracelets and bangles. It closed in 1981 after nearly 100 years of trading, leaving behind all its machinery, tools and papers,” says Barbara Nomikos, the museum team manager at MJQ.
Opened 1992. The factory lay untouched for nine years until it was bought by Birmingham City Council and transformed into a museum.
“Number 79 Vyse Street – the former Thomas L Mott jewellery maker – was rebuilt to provide visitor facilities and display space, and in 2009 the museum expanded into Number 80, which houses more gallery space and a temporary exhibition gallery and tea room,” Nomikos says.
Collection The main part comprises the factory workshops and offices. Visitors can see the machinery, tools, die-cutters, stamps and papers left behind, including the workers’ milk bill from 1899. Tours narrate the social history of the family and include demonstrations of the tools workers used.
There are two permanent galleries: The Story of the Jewellery Quarter contextualises Birmingham’s jewellery trade, while the Earth’s Riches gallery displays jewellery from across the world. Downstairs, a temporary space hosts changing exhibitions.
Highlights “The tours get visitors to take a step back in time – the factory is brought to life with the whirring of the belt drives and the thud of the drop stamp,” Nomikos says.
“The highlight is the jeweller’s bench, complete with tacked leather skins to catch the gold dust.” Help at hand There are five permanent front-of-house staff who deliver tours and operate the shop and tea room. Four volunteers regularly pitch in.
Budget The lion’s share of income comes from admission fees (adult tickets for the combined tour and galleries are £7; a gallery-only visit is £6; children are free). Further revenue comes from the tea room and shop.
Family activity days are run during school holidays and special events, such as the Halloween walk (30 October) around the quarter, are popular. Hiring out the museum also brings in income.
The temporary gallery is free to visit.
Sticky moment “This year, there was a freak rainstorm during a tour,” Nomikos says. “In the room known as Miss Olive’s office, staff desperately tried to rescue the 100-year-old papers from the water coming in through the roof, while diverting visitors. Thankfully, the objects were saved and the roof is being looked at.”
Survival tip “It is important to look at new ways of engaging audiences and generating income,” Nomikos says. “We are trying to do this by enhancing our corporate hire offer to include ‘crafternoon tea’ packages as well as craft and jewellery workshops.”
Visitors 30,000 a year.
Future plans The museum will be participating in Collecting Birmingham, a new exhibition that is part of a three- year project (2015-2018) run by Birmingham Museums and supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund.
There will be early-morning tours of Museum of the Jewellery Quarter at the Museums Association Annual Conference in Birmingham, 5-6 November