Birmingham Town Hall was designed by Joseph Hansom and Edward Welch, and Birmingham City Council is listed as owner. Construction began on April 27, 1832, and the hall opened on October 7, 1834 for the delayed Music Festival. Hansom went bankrupt during construction after tendering too low.
The style is a 19th-century revival of Roman architecture, a free-standing Corinthian temple modeled on the Temple of Castor and Pollux. It is faced in Penmon Anglesey marble on a rusticated stone podium, with acanthus-leaf capitals. The plan is 14 bays by 8 bays. The 6,000-pipe organ was installed by William Hill & Sons. It is Grade I listed.
Charles Dickens gave his first public readings of his own works here in 1853, and Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius premiered here in 1900. The hall closed in 1996 for a 35 million pound refurbishment and reopened for concerts in October 2007. The article gives no hours.
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