Lapworth Museum of Geology: Birmingham Travel Guide (4.7★)

Under the dome on Chancellor’s Court

You reach the Aston Webb Building across the red-brick semicircle of Chancellor’s Court, with the domed Great Hall at its centre. The museum lives inside this Edwardian block, and the galleries are high-ceilinged and lit by tall windows. Glass cases run the length of the rooms.

The name honours Charles Lapworth, the university’s first geology professor, who proposed the Ordovician period in 1879. In 2017 the redesigned museum was shortlisted for the Art Fund Museum of the Year prize. Despite that, it gets far fewer visitors than the city-centre museums, so it often feels like a quieter find.

Trilobites from the Black Country

The Wenlock limestone fossils are the reason to come. They were laid down about 430 million years ago in a tropical sea that once covered what is now Dudley. Look for:

• Trilobites, including Calymene blumenbachii, the “Dudley Bug” that sits on Dudley’s old coat of arms
• Crinoids, the “sea lilies” whose stems break into stacked discs
• Corals and brachiopods packed into slabs of grey limestone
• Minerals, gems and crystals in strong colours, displayed in their own cases

Expect to spend 60 to 90 minutes. Families should allow longer, because many displays are hands-on.

Timing a weekday or weekend visit

The hours change at the weekend. Monday to Friday it opens 10am to 4pm. Saturday and Sunday it opens later and closes later, 12pm to 5pm.

The weekend is when it’s calmest. Across the whole Saturday and Sunday opening window, 12pm to 5pm, crowd levels stay low. That makes a weekend afternoon the easy choice for unhurried time at the fossil cases. On weekdays the campus is busy with term-time students. Getting there by 10am gives you the most of the shorter day.

Getting in and around the campus

Arriving by train is simple. Cross-City line trains run from Birmingham New Street to University station in under ten minutes. From there, follow the campus signs uphill to Chancellor’s Court and the tall clock tower known as “Old Joe”.

• Admission has traditionally been free. Check the museum’s page on the University of Birmingham website before you go, especially for temporary exhibitions.
• Enter through the Aston Webb Building’s main doors. Staff can point you to the museum if the route through the corridors isn’t obvious.
• Parking on campus is limited and controlled. Taking the train usually saves a lot of circling.
• Keep your voice down near the teaching corridors, because lectures and exams take place in the same building.

Pair the visit with the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, a few minutes’ walk away on the same campus. It’s a compact gallery with old-master paintings. With both, you have a full afternoon at Edgbaston without needing a bus.