Best of Birmingham 12km Running Tour

Our Licensed England Athletics Run Leader will meet you at Roundhouse Birmingham, a hidden-gem heritage building positioned along our World-famous canals (we have more of them than Venice did you know). Your Guide will take you through an introduction, warmup, group ice-breaker, and tell you a bit about the History of this building (only the most exciting facts of course), before you start your running tour.

After running 0.5 miles along the canal, we stop for a breather at our first stop. Here you'll see many sights including Birmingham Library, The Hall of Memory, Baskerville House, and the water feature we like to call the "overly designed puddle". Your guide will tell you some fun facts about these landmarks and introduce how Birmingham first began as a city 1620 years ago.

After 1 mile of straight running, you'll enter our quaint Jewellery Quarter. A whopping 40% of the UK’s Jewellery is made in our beloved JQ, so it’s no wonder it’s been described as a (literal) national treasure by English Heritage and the place Banksy chose to make his mark. Victorian Cemeteries and quirky residential apartments await you in this small and special area, with a flourishing independent food and drink scene, boutique hotels, industry museums and creative workshops you'll see and want to visit after your run. At this stop your guide will tell you about the history of this area and how important it is within Birminghams History. You'll learn the funny and heart warming stories about the FA Cup that was made here and the Banksy Street Art mural.

After running along a secret canal path and stopping to learn about how they enabled Birmingham to become the power house of the Industrial Revolution, plus the great (and evil) Industrial Inventors, your guide will take you to Digbeth. A neighbourhood voted the Coolest in Britain, it's an adults playground, hub of indepepdents and (street)art gallery on acid. You’ll find things in Digbeth that you won’t find anywhere else in the World and we'll stop to tell you alllllll about it.

Next your guide will take you to our very own Gay Village, China Town & Theatreland rolled into one colourful, fun & fabulous street, where they'll tell you all about the inspiring development of the scene here. Be prepared to try and resist the smells, smiles and sights that await you as we run back towards the City Centre after.

After some uphill running, your heart will be beating just in time to see one of our most renowned landmarks, our beloved bronze bull. You'll learn why bulls are so iconic to Birmingham before your guide will take a photo of you next to it (it's a must-do in our city). Rub his nose too if you like for some luck!

We'll run past our iconic curved Selfridges building. Composed of 15,000 aluminium discs and centre piece of the Brummie skyline. Selfridges at Bullring is every bit as special on the inside so make sure you return to fulfill all of your shopping fantasies.

We'll run past this 12th centuary market that's still going strong today, and you'll learn all about it at our stop by The Bull.

Another of Birminghams iconic Squares, you'll stop to see Our Town Hall, Council House, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Chamberlain Fountain, The River waterfeature (and learn why locals call her the "Floozie in the Jacuzzi") and our Queen Victoria Statue. You'll wonder whether you're in Rome whilst listening to more fun facts and stories about why Queen Vic hated Birmingham so much.

After a short 0.2 mile downhill run, we'll stop at the Big Red Mailbox, another of Birminghams Luxury Shopping venues and iconic buildings. Here you'll learn about it's history and uncover some underground secrets before another uphill trot back onto the canals to our start and end location.

Another of Birminghams most iconic buildings with public art and a lovely canal side bridge you can stop to take more pictures on (if you'd like).