On Saturday 14th of July, from 5-7pm, you can experience a fascinating tour about Birmingham’s last public hanging and capital punishment. Organised by the West Midlands police, this lock-up evening tour includes an hour long talk on the history of capital punishment presented by local historian Kay Hunter.
The event will take place in The Lock-up on Steelhouse Lane. The Steelhouse Lane Lock-up was in use from 1891 to 2016 and many of the original Victorian features are still present, alongside more modern custody facilities. The Grade II listed building shows how a mini prison operated in a busy city centre for well over a century.
After the tour you will have the chance to browse freely around the facility and look in the cells to find out more about some of the Victorian prisoners who stayed there. You will also get to pay a visit to their shop and help support their fundraising.
All proceeds from this day will be supporting our fundraising to turn this iconic building into a permanent police museum (with the exception of A Fair Cop – which is raising money for local women’s charities).
This tour is for adults only – no under 17s please. Please note due to the nature and age of the facility there is currently no access for mobility impaired guests due to the large amounts of steps and lack of a disability access lift.
You are advised to wear suitable and comfortable footwear (e.g. no stiletto heels) as there are three floors to view and some of the landings have small holes which could trap heels. Please also wear appropriate clothing due to the grilled floors and winding staircases.
Photographs will be taken during these events which could be used as publicity material for the museum in the future and may therefore be published on social media. For security reasons, a bag search will be required prior to entry.
A previous visitor at the Lock-up said: ‘We went to the Lock-up for an evening talk and tour. Great talks where given by various people to do with the police force and a history of the building was given. Then we had time to go around the whole place at our own time. Great place to visit and hopefully be turned into the new West Midlands police museum!’
Get your tickets here.
