Museum Collections Centre

The Museum Collections Centre is a storage facility in Nechells that holds about 80 percent of the collections kept in reserve by Birmingham Museums Trust. The building spans roughly 1.5 hectares and maintains climate control throughout to protect these items.

The center preserves numerous steam engines from the former Birmingham Museum of Science and Industry, along with vintage vehicles made by Austin, Rover, and MG. These collections reflect the city's industrial heritage and its role in British automotive history.

The 'Museum in a Box' program lets schools and community groups borrow real objects from the collections for educational work across Birmingham. This brings artifacts directly into local spaces where people can learn from them firsthand.

You can reach the center by taking bus number 14 from Birmingham city center to Duddeston station, then walking about 500 meters to the entrance. Allow extra time for this walk, as the facility sits on a large site away from the main town areas.

In 2014, a staff member discovered a preserved specimen of the extinct North American passenger pigeon within the collections stored here. This find revealed just how diverse and unexpected the items kept behind the scenes can be.