Superb tour of these fascinating houses, brilliantly led by Annette, who had personal experience of living in similar houses, was most knowledgeable about every aspect and was friendly and helpful too. Thoroughly recommended for anyone interested in social history or simply in how people used to live. A reminder of how much better Birmingham must have been before the council's planners destroyed the city in the 1960s etc.

A wonderful experience, even though we could only get in on the ground floor tour. We were not disappointed in any way! Our guide, Val, was very informative and really brought the lives of the people who lived here to life.

Fantastic trip through 19th Century Birmingham. The tour guide was local and very knowledgeable. His experience living locally helped set the site in context. We wandered through many different rooms laid out over 4 timeframes. It is great that these buildings have been preserved and are talked about. Booking is essential. Not sure I would go back anytime soon as I believe I saw everything on offer. Thanks for a great 90 minutes.

Wow we've been to Birmingham so many times and walked past these without knowing exactly what they are. If you want some very interesting history and a reason to stay out of the pubs for a couple of hours please go here. Tours have to be pre-booked and last approx 1 1/2. Hours. The houses are beautifully restored and protected and hearing about life in these times was really interesting. Our tour guide had lived in this type of house when younger so it was extra special to hear the family stories from someone who lived there. It's lovely to touch the antiques and go all through these houses. The amount of care and attention they put in is amazing.

This place is a tour de force of what the national trust does well. (Which isn't something that happens often) . First off you need to plan ahead and book , tickets are limited and go on sale a few weeks in advance. These back to back houses are the last of their kind and take you back to a time now past. The tour guide was first class and actually as a child lived in one, so there was fascinating anecdotes and first hand experience of the latter use of these properties. The houses/rooms are dressed as per a certain period and are done sympathetically. There is so much of interest and so much to learn, it really is a must see place if you are going to be in Birmingham.

Awesome! I joined a tour and loved it. Our guide was enthusiastic, knowledgeable and the tour is well thought out. The tour lasted around an hour, you get to be immersed into the daily life of the people living in the houses back then. I loved all the details, they truly made a difference. I would definitely recommend the tour!

Very interesting tour , gives historic insight into lives of ordinary people in Birmingham, parents and grandparents and how people from all over the world came to work there at different periods in history and the jobs that they did. Including the good and the bad parts of their life. Could relate to any industrial city where back to backs housing existed. Enjoyable visit.

Managed to get a last minute ticket for this and am I glad I did!! This is real, living,, social history at its best! The last remaining example of back to back housing in the UK, the tour guide (John) absolutely gave his best as he regaled our small group with stories of some of the families who have lived here over the years. If you see nothing else in Birmingham, see this! It is poignant, informative, entertaining and eye opening to a way of life not so long gone by. At the moment there’s also a small exhibition about the child migrations to Canada and Australia and a peep into the living rooms inspired by Mykal Wassifa Brown, HQ of one of the longest performing sound systems in the UK. Highly recommend a visit; suitable for all ages and abilities although access to the upper floors is tricky. At around £9 it’s a bargain! Thank you John and Sam and thank you National Trust for saving these houses.

The most amazing nation trust we have been to. The guide bought it to life with stories and historical knowledge.

Fantastic history of these old buildings the tour guide David was brilliant

On a visit to Birmingham from Canada in late May, we toured the Back to Backs. It was an absolutely fascinating experience wonderfully animated by our guide, Wesley, who grew up in a back to back house. He took us through a chronological history of not only the houses themselves, but of the lives of residents who lived there. Life was very precarious in the early days and life expectancy of those who lived there was quite short. Children especially had a very hard life. Wesley provided us with some entertaining anecdotes from each era and opened our eyes to the hardships of the working poor. The houses themselves and the courtyard with laundry and latrine facilities are authentic and are packed with implements people used on a daily basis. We are so glad we chose this visit and highly recommend it to all visitors to Birmingham!

A fun interesting NT property to visit. Guided tours last about an hour.

It was a very interesting place, we had a mini play at the back garden, I never thought you'd find a place like this in China Town

Fascinating listening to how people used to live. Did the full tour, 1.5 hrs. ( Guided Tours Only) If you like history this is a must, my 13 yr old however was bored, would not recommend it for young children.

This is an amazing property. We were incredibly lucky to have Dave as a tour guide, whom having spent his childhood in a back-to-back, had many personal insights into the lifestyle of those who occupied them. It really brought the history site to life. I’d really recommend this tour, but it is not available to anyone with mobility issues as there are many small and narrow flights of stairs.

Wow what a special place, so much history in a small area. The house's are decorated and presented in 4 different time periods to give you a sense of what it was like living during those times. Our guide was so knowledgeable and full of enthusiasm! The tour lasts for around 1.5 hours and does involve walking up and down some narrow staircases!' Entry is by guided tour only a d definitely book in advance. There's a book shop and toilets but no cafe. Parking is in thmulti-storeyey carpark next door.

Was so looking forward to this but it didn't meet expectations. Although I was in the earlier tour, if the weather isn't sunny enough, you won't be able to see anything! See my pictures posted. Why the guide had no torch is a mystery. Yes we can use our phone but why should I as a paying visitor? The tour is meant to be 90min. Mine went way over 120min, depends on your guide and if anyone in your group is a grandmother who wants to share everything about what she knows. Keep to time, please. Make sure to fully dress for cold, there is some heating but minimal. I had to leave early because of this, too. Candy shop was good but the boy couldn't be bothered. Overall the most disappointing National Trust site I've ever visited. The structure of the building obviously is very interesting though I think an hour is more than plenty. Only 6 people per tour so book early via email. They won't pick up calls.

A truly fascinating experience and brilliant of the NT to preserve these properties which record the lives of ordinary working people. The tour needs to be booked in advance and take place for 5 or 6 people each time. It lasts for around 90 minutes which flies by! Our guide was as entertaining as he was knowledgeable and gave some fascinating insights as to how people lived in various decades. There is a bookshop, no NT tearoom but there are numerous eateries literally on the doorstep. Highly recommended!

Such an interesting visit. Full tour lasts about 1.5 hrs. Lots of history in a small area. Steep stairs but you can sit on chairs and touch displays as you go round. Well worth £10 fee or free for NT members. Enthusiastic volunteers.

This is an amazing place to visit, do pre book first! It gives an insight to living and working just as the industrial revolution starts and develops. Do take care on the stairs! Thanks to Mike for the excellent tour. Expect the informative tour to last about 1.5 hours. Its a hands on experience expect to be surprised. Its ten minutes walk from New Street station.

Amazing and fulfilling experience, Greta was such a sweet and funny tour guide. I went without pre-booking and they happen to have a spot, but def recommend to buy a ticket before going.

Excellent tour lasting over 90 minutes and very interesting and informative

Upset that can't order a tour. Only online.

Very interesting and informative

A great tour. What a hidden story. Our Guide knew his stuff.

Really interesting National Trust property. Old back to backs with tour guide which was very informative.

Really enjoyed our visit, 60 people lived here with 3 toilets!

Absolutely brilliant visit! Our guide, Jean , made it particularly interesting sharing anecdotal stories from her own grandmother who spent her childhood in a Back to Back housing. If you're available Birmingham, it's definitely worth going.

Hidden gem of a museum

Really informative, the guides are knowledgeable and engaging and the restoration is done excellently.

Brilliant tour, so much history and diversity

Great way of viewing social history with knowledgeable guides. Thanks national trust.

Fantastic buildings with National Trust great guides well worth a visit

Probably the best place I've visited in a while. Really interesting and full of social history.

Really interesting. Had a guided tour which was good and informative. Great to see a different type of National Trust property

Great place to visit for all the family. You need to book a timed entry before you arrive to ensure a successful visit. The escorted tour takes about ninety minutes. You are taken through different rooms and levels of five stories. Each house features different time scales. Some stairways are steep. Last remaining back to back houses. Take the tour across the centuries? Photography inside the buildings is prohibited.

Hidden gem! The tour took an hour but the tour guide was brilliant, she knew her stuff about the courtyard and its residents. Sweet shop is great too.

An excellent restoration, an an excellent tour. I know that the NT gets criticism sometimes for freezing places in time, but here they've used different houses to show different time periods, and it really works. Our guide was knowledgeable and had a fund of stories about back to back houses, and about Birmingham, which all added to the flavour of the visit. The restoration and maintenance of these buildings, ordinary dwellings that countless thousands had known in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, is significant, and just as important as any Stately Home.

A fantastic insight to the history of Birmingham, the tour is a must (but needs to be pre-booked). The tour lasts about 2 hours and provides a huge insight into the people living there. It is amazing as you look back how people managed to live, and how lucky we are now.

Fabulous place to visit. Knowledgeable guides and makes you appreciate how we live today compared to how families crammed into these small homes.

Really interesting place to visit, Des our tour guide was brilliant. Really worth the visit

(Translated by Google) Call ahead to book the tour (Original) Appeler à l'avance pour réserver la visite

Tour was great, our guide Dave was super informative and knowledgeable. Enjoy every minute of it.

A short walk from the Bullring (although we did get a bit lost as it isn't sign posted well but I rang them up and they talked me through the directions). It is well worth the visit and guide was fantastic.

Absolutely fascinating and well worth a visit. Tony, our guide, was so knowledgeable and great on delivery.

Very interesting tour by a well knowledgeable tour guide. 2 and a half hours of being totally enthralled.

Well worth the effort, booking essential tour lasts approx one and a half hours and worth every penny. Interesting history lesson and artifacts showing how housing progressesd in the 1800s to 1900s

Absolutely loved it. The one and a half hour guided tour flew by, was very interesting and authentic and the volunteer guide very knowledgeable and informative. Beware however that you need to book onto a tour as this is a confined space with steep stairs to be climbed.

So interesting, extremely well designed tour with a passionate and friendly and entertaining guide. Superb

Great tour! Very, very informative journey through time and people's lives. Thank you very much!

Excellent tour. Excellent guide, 'Tony"

Fabulous place to visit.... We had the best tour guide ever!!!! It was more personal to me and my sisters because my father's family had lived there...

Really interesting tour! Would recommend to anyone who is interested in history, housing or social structure. Very knowledgeable tour guide, invited questions felt very conversational rather than being lectured.

Interesting and exciting place worth visiting. John ist an enthusiastic tour guide with humor and knowledge.

Well worth a visit. Very interesting and great guide.

Our guide David was very interesting and informative.The time went by so quick nearly 1.45 minutes long.The youngsters today dont know theyre born.The sweet shop brought back memories as well.

Fantastic tour. Well worth the visit. Very friendly

Travel in time - from Victorian times to 1970's. I found this National Trust place the best attraction in Birmingham - absolutely must see, especially for younger visitors. All guides are so knowledgeable, our guide - Betty was the loveliest person you could meet, coming herself from back to backs and giving you the real feel of this place. You have to book online in advance - don't hope to get tickets just before the visit, especially at weekends. Your National Trust membership and also one day passes work here. There is accessible route (ground floors only), bookshop and gift shop and modern toilets (no need to use the Victorian one 😆).

(Translated by Google) we really enjoyed our visit. Our guide told the history in an informative and interesting way. It is great to live as it adds to the experience. Birmingham is definitely a hidden gem worth seeing .. It did an excellent job of recreating what life would be like at various points of the time, how residents spent their days, how they earned their money and how difficult life was. It was also clever in getting all of us involved and involved. Speed ​​of one and a half turns per hour. You can then visit an old-fashioned sweet shop. (Original) ziyaretimizden gerçekten keyif aldık. Rehberimiz bilgilendirici ve ilginç bir şekilde arka arkaya tarihini söyledi. Yaşamak, deneyime eklediği gibi yaşamış olması harika. Birmingham, kesinlikle görülmeye değer bir gizli mücevher.. O zamanın çeşitli noktalarında yaşamın nasıl olacağını, sakinlerin günlerini nasıl geçirdiğini, paralarını nasıl kazandıklarını ve hayatın ne kadar zor olduğunu yeniden yaratmak için mükemmel bir iş çıkardı. Aynı zamanda hepimizin katılımını ve katılımını sağlama konusunda da zekiydi. Saatte bir buçuk tur hız. Daha sonra eski moda bir tatlı dükkanını ziyaret edebilirsiniz.

Our guide was such an excellent storyteller, time flied! He put us at ease from the beginning of the tour and was captivating. I would definitely recommend this visit if you want to have insights on how people used to live in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Well done the National Trust! This is a real treasure, very evocative of Birmingham in past times, beautifully thought out and presented but best of all the friendly and expert volunteer guide. A 'must see' in the heart of Birmingham.

Well.worth a visit but know there are a lot of very steep stairs. Great piece of social history.

What an amazing insite into how people used to live in the back to back houses in Birmingham hundreds of years ago. A must go and see.

Absolutely brilliant! Only available by pre booked guided tour. So informative and interesting. Beware the steep staircases!

Visited the Back to Backs today and Paul Gardner was our tour guide. He was fantastic! So knowledgeable and told in a way that you could relate to. You could he enjoyed every tour he did and that it means something to him to pass his knowledge on. Thank you Paul, we had a great tour!

Super interesting... getting to know the domestic life of industrial workers

Fantastic brought back old memories and a very interesting visit . Be warned though very steep stairs to climb so not suitable for people with mobility issues . Worth a visit if you can

Great place to visit for all ages except stairs very steep not good if you have mobility problems, but you can still see down stairs, guides very good and thankfully you can sit on the chairs and beds as the tour is 1.5 hours they also have entertainment for kids it's national trust so it needs the money, went again with my granddaughter's 10,9 &7 all enjoyed it my 10year old has a project at school about 1st world war so she found it very interesting, special mention to Jean who was are guide, she made it very entertaining for the kids

What a absolute gem of a place to visit, this NationalTrust venue is just a short walk from Birmingham New st station and will worth a visit, it’s capture of what life was like in the area is so atmospheric, I must give a shout out to our guide Wesley who was a charm and really filled us with information and kept up captivated throughout, the venue is a booking visit only and can get full quickly, there are toilets and a small second hand book shop but no NT shop or cafe, I highly recommend this place if in the area.

The guide was very knowledgeable about the houses and brought the house to life. I loved the authencity of the contents that decorated each room through time. A great experience.

What an amazing experience. Worth every penny. Graham was absolutely amazing guide, he took me to the past with his amazing story telling abilities. Not just that I learned about the life at those times, but I also had great time travelling through the past. Graham, thank you very much, I trully appreciate your dedication and efforts.

Fantastic museum with an amazing story of its survival. We had a passionate , enthusiastic & very knowledgeable tour guide Jane which added to the whole experience. Well thought out & presented tour through history using the houses over different periods of time. A must visit

Excellent museum piece of Birmingham worker's life and the way they lived in Birmingham from 1840 until the 1930's in cheap to build back to back housing which was home to Birmingham artisans for nearly a century

I grew up in a back to back in Ladywood. These 3 houses somehow escaped the bulldozers of the 70's. Each house tells a story from the 1800's up to 1970's. Well worth it and it will stir up a lot of memories if you grew up in one.

I'm sure the place is lovely but hard to go. Everyone says that it is best to email them since they only answer the phone 11-3, however, when I emailed 2 weeks in advance I got an automated email response saying they will replying in 5 working days. When I called up to check after no response I was infomed they never received the email and are now fully booked.

Our guide was Mike was friendly and very knowledgeable and answered all questions. He gave us the background of the families who lived in the houses at each period of the houses. We had an interesting visit and would definitely recommend this experience to all.

A superb guide - Theresa made this an interesting, informative and entertaining visit.

These houses are charmingly full of history and have been restored so well. You have to book in on a tour to visit but lady who took us round was amazing, full of knowledge, funny and answered any question thrown at her.

It's a good place for people who likes history.

Come on guys, open up fully!

Really interesting! I recommended it to anyone who likes history.The place is fantastic as it´s onr of the last homes of the SXIX that is still standing.The ticket is 15€ and you have to book in advance.

A great guided tour of a very unique and interesting place. Well worth the effort of getting a ticket. Highly recommended.

Excellent tour and explanation of how the back to Backs were built and who lived in them. Detailed, but very interesting.

Really enjoyed the step back in time that these buildings offer, our guide was very knowledgeable and the houses and the yard with the wash house and outside toilets reminded me of my Nans house in Grantham. The only downside for me was that we were not allowed to take photographs due to the mindless few who had visited before. I would have liked to take photos to keep as a reminder of our visit and my Nans home which no longer exists.

One of the very few places where you can take a deep dive into the history of Birmingham today. These small, but carefully preserved houses and the stories behind them were a real window to the past for us - tourists who came to see more about the industrial history of Birmingham. Also shout out for the staff - very welcoming, friendly and knowledgeable.

Well worth the visit, knowledgeable guides take you round.

Great place to see our past history. A real insight to working class Life in Birmingham. They have some new exhibitions coming in the next six months so well worth a visit then

We visited this museum on the first weekend of reopening. All the staff were enthusiastic to be back and were all very mindful of the COVID-19 safety measures. We had our own personal tour with a very professional tour guide who was very happy to explain tye history of the last surviving back to back house in Birmingham and to answer our many questions. We really enjoyed our tour and we recommend a visit in order to appreciate the cultural heritage of Birmingham.

Absolutely fantastic experience! Our amazing guide Ross was brilliant! Extremely knowledgeable and a great sense of humor- had everyone in stitches! Didn't want it to end. Thank you for a tour of the Back to Backs, myself, my daughter and my sister thoroughly enjoyed our experience.

Fabulous place, the knowledge takes you back in time to how it was...

We were shown around by Betty, who was so enthusiastic and full of information to share about the back-to-backs. We absolutely loved our tour and can't thank our guide enough!

Amazing

Arguably the best excursion we did when visiting Birmingham! Our tour guide was fantastic and super knowledgable which helped provide a real authentic tour of the old Back to Back houses. For less than £10pp, this is a must for all interested in the history of Birmingham and to see how people used to live!

Had a tour guide called Dave to show us around and he was amazing. A great amount of history explained a font of knowledge. Thoroughly enjoyed our experience.

Very interesting tour around the houses ,the volunteer gentleman that took us round had some funny stories and gave us a lot of information about the families that used to live there, there were nice memories of items around the houses that my nan used to have, think tour was hour and 45minutes so well worth it, as a national trust member I can't believe it's took me this long to visit only being local, so big thanks to our tour guide on Tues 9th may 1pm⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐