[49] By the 1600s Birmingham formed the commercial hub of a network of forges and furnaces stretching from South Wales to Cheshire[50] and its merchants were selling finished manufactured goods as far afield as the West Indies.

[57] The town developed into a notable centre of literary, musical, artistic and theatrical activity;[58] and its leading citizens – particularly the members of the Lunar Society of Birmingham – became influential participants in the circulation of philosophical and scientific ideas among Europe's intellectual elite.

[68] Innovation in 18th-century Birmingham often took the form of incremental series of small-scale improvements to existing products or processes,[71] but also included major developments that lay at the heart of the emergence of industrial society.

[80] Freeing for the first time the manufacturing capacity of human society from the limited availability of hand, water and animal power, this was arguably the pivotal moment of the entire Industrial Revolution and a key factor in the worldwide increases in productivity over the following century.

[84] This reputation for having "shaken the fabric of privilege to its base" in 1832 led John Bright to make Birmingham the platform for his successful campaign for the Second Reform Act of 1867, which extended voting rights to the urban working class.

[92] Otto Frisch and Rudolf Peierls first described how a practical nuclear weapon could be constructed in the Frisch–Peierls memorandum of 1940,[93] the same year that the cavity magnetron, the key component of radar and later of microwave ovens, was invented by John Randall and Henry Boot.

[94] Details of these two discoveries, together with an outline of the first jet engine invented by Frank Whittle in nearby Rugby, were taken to the United States by the Tizard Mission in September 1940, in a single black box later described by an official American historian as "the most valuable cargo ever brought to our shores".

The city absorbed Sutton Coldfield in 1974 and became a metropolitan borough in the new West Midlands county,[118] comprising Birmingham, Coventry, Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull, Walsall, and Wolverhampton.

[125] To the south and east of the fault the ground is largely softer Mercia Mudstone, interspersed with beds of Bunter pebbles and crossed by the valleys of the Rivers Tame, Rea and Cole and their tributaries.

[126] To the north and west of the fault, between 150 and 600 feet (46 and 183 metres) higher than the surrounding area and underlying much of the city centre, lies a long ridge of harder Keuper Sandstone.

[164] In addition to Birmingham itself, the LUZ (West Midlands conurbation) includes the Metropolitan Boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull and Walsall, along with the districts of Lichfield, Tamworth, North Warwickshire and Bromsgrove.

[181] The Guru Nanak Nishkam Sewak Jatha Sikh Gurdwara was built on Soho Road in Handsworth in the late 1970s and the Theravada Buddhist Dhamma Talaka Peace Pagoda near Edgbaston Reservoir in the 1990s.

Music was specially composed, conducted or performed by Mendelssohn, Gounod, Sullivan, Dvořák, Bantock and Edward Elgar, who wrote four of his most famous choral pieces for Birmingham.

[213] The 1970s also saw the rise of reggae and ska in the city with such bands as Steel Pulse, UB40, Musical Youth, The Beat and Beshara, expounding racial unity with politically leftist lyrics and multiracial line-ups, mirroring social currents in Birmingham at that time.

Musicians Jeff Lynne, Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Bill Ward, Geezer Butler, GBH, John Lodge, Roy Wood, Joan Armatrading, Toyah Willcox, Denny Laine, Sukshinder Shinda, Apache Indian, Steve Winwood, Jamelia, Oceans Ate Alaska, Fyfe Dangerfield and Laura Mvula all grew up in the city.

[220] The Birmingham Opera Company under artistic director Graham Vick has developed an international reputation for its avant-garde productions,[221] which often take place in factories, abandoned buildings and other found spaces around the city.

[229] The political playwright David Edgar was born in Birmingham,[230] and the science fiction author John Wyndham spent his early childhood in the Edgbaston area of the city.

[231] Birmingham has a vibrant contemporary literary scene, with local authors including David Lodge, Jim Crace, Jonathan Coe, Joel Lane and Judith Cutler.

[232] The city's leading contemporary literary publisher is the Tindal Street Press, whose authors include prize-winning novelists Catherine O'Flynn, Clare Morrall and Austin Clarke.

Iconic works by Birmingham designers include the Baskerville font,[242] Ruskin Pottery,[243] the Acme Thunderer whistle,[244] the Art Deco branding of the Odeon Cinemas[245] and the Mini.

[247] It also holds a significant selection of old masters – including major works by Bellini, Rubens, Canaletto and Claude – and particularly strong collections of 17th-century Italian Baroque painting and English watercolours.

A few other buildings from the medieval and Tudor periods survive, among them the Lad in the Lane[286] and The Old Crown, the 15th century Saracen's Head public house and Old Grammar School in Kings Norton[287] and Blakesley Hall.

[293] In a partial reaction against the Manzoni years, Birmingham City Council is demolishing some of the brutalist buildings like the Central Library and has an extensive tower block demolition and renovation programme.

[295] Highrise development has slowed since the 1970s and mainly in recent years because of enforcements imposed by the Civil Aviation Authority on the heights of buildings as they could affect aircraft from the Airport (e.g. Beetham Tower).

In recent years, ideas of an underground system have started to appear, but none so far have been planned in earnest primarily due to the ongoing expansion of the West Midlands Metro tram network being viewed as a higher priority.

[313] It is the national hub for CrossCountry, the most extensive long-distance train network in Britain,[314] and a major destination for Avanti West Coast services from London Euston, Glasgow Central and Edinburgh Waverley.

It is a major trauma centre offering services to the extended West Midlands region and houses the largest single-floor critical care unit in the world, with 100 beds.

[397] The Forest of Arden Hotel and Country Club near Birmingham Airport is also a regular host of tournaments on the PGA European Tour, including the British Masters and the English Open.

[399] It is played annually at the Edgbaston Priory Club, which in 2010 announced plans for a multimillion-pound redevelopment, including a new showcase centre court and a museum celebrating the game's Birmingham origins.

Birmingham is also the hub for various national ethnic media, lifestyle magazines, digital news platforms, and the base for two regional Metro editions (East and West Midlands).