Discover the history of our Museum
The museum began as an idea of Detective Sergeant Charlie Elworthy.
As part of Birmingham City Police’s training school, he wanted a collection of objects to help tell the story of policing in Birmingham.
His enthusiasm spread throughout the force, and he collected a large number of them.
The current museum moved to Sparkhill police station in the 1990s. Police Constable Dave Cross took charge of it and built a successful education programme for schools. He also hosted open days and answered questions about people’s family history in policing.
Sparkhill station then went up for sale in 2015, as part of enforced budget cuts. Volunteers looked for other places to house the museum. In 2017, they suggested to move it to the Victorian Lock-up at Birmingham Central police station at Steelhouse Lane.
Successful open days convinced us to start a lottery bid to secure the funding needed to house our new museum. We were successful in March 2020.
After the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the project, work got back on track in March 2021. Following designs by Lathams Architects, we appointed Trios Group as our main contractors. The Creative Core interpreted the design and fitted it out.
Refurbishments finished in March 2022. It allowed the museum to open in its new permanent home in April 2022.