On the trail of Peaky Blinders, Black Sabbath and the perfect pint – an alternative guide to Birmingham

On the trail of Peaky Blinders, Black Sabbath and the perfect pint – an alternative guide to Birmingham As the Peaky Blinders film is released this week, we follow in the footsteps of the Shelbys, make a heavy metal pilgrimage and find the city’s best places to eat, drink and dance Culture – Shelby murals and Sabbath shrines The runaway success of the TV crime drama Peaky Blinders has been credited with boosting tourism to Birmingham and the West Midlands since it first aired in 2013, even though much of the series was actually shot farther north, in Merseyside, Yorkshire and Manchester. The release this week of the Peaky Blinders movie The Immortal Man (much of which was filmed in and around Birmingham this time) will undoubtedly generate a new wave of interest, particularly in the Black Country Living Museum in nearby Dudley, whose authentic recreations of streets, houses and industrial workshops appear in key scenes in the TV show and the film – most notably as the location for Charlie Strong’s yard (pictured below). At the Digbeth Loc. Studios, where much of the new movie was shot, fans can also see Peaky Blinders murals created by artist Mr Murals. A walking tour of the city with a guide dressed as “Edward Shelby” (from £20pp, viator.com ) is well worth a couple of hours, while historic mugshots, artefacts and the original cells in which members of the real-life Peaky Blinders gang were once held are now on show at West Midlands Police Museum . The city has also become something of a pilgrimage site for heavy metal fans, especially since the final Black Sabbath concert at Villa Park last summer and Ozzy Osbourne’s passing just over two weeks later. There are Ozzy and Sabbath landmarks all around the city, including another of Mr Murals’ artworks on Navigation Street, near New Street station, which all four members of the band visited and signed ahead of the concert. A couple of minutes’ walk away is The Crown pub (now sadly closed) where Sabbath played their fi...