Lockwoods’ Birmingham exhibition opens on 3 November

Culture & Events Desk 2026-10-28 10:51 3 min read

An 1883 oil painting depicting a busy Worcester Street and New Street Station, Birmingham.

Paintings of Birmingham’s streets, factories and shopping centres chart almost a century of change in Illustrating Birmingham: 100 years through the eyes of the Lockwoods, opening Tuesday 3 November 2026 at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery. The exhibition is in the museum’s Bridge Gallery and brings together work by father and son artists Frank and Arthur Lockwood. It may interest visitors keen to see how the city’s buildings and streets have changed, and how people have experienced those changes.

The exhibition sets the Lockwoods’ personal record of Birmingham alongside contemporary perspectives on what the city means to people who live and work there today. The museum’s announcement describes a collection spanning paintings, drawings, sketchbooks, designs and advertising material.

See Birmingham change across two generations

Frank Lockwood painted Birmingham from the 1920s, recording its streets, buildings and residents. His son Arthur continued documenting the city through the 2010s. Their work covers nearly 100 years, giving visitors a way to look across two generations of artistic records.

The subjects trace a city repeatedly being remade. Some works depict places that have disappeared; others show demolition, redevelopment and new construction. Factories and shopping centres appear alongside earlier landscapes of fields and farms. Viewed together, these scenes offer a visual comparison between different moments in Birmingham’s development, rather than a single snapshot of the city.

The collection also includes material beyond finished paintings and drawings: sketchbooks, designs and advertising work. These items broaden the record to show how the artists worked and the different ways they depicted the city and the people connected to it.

Meet the artists behind the paintings

Frank Taylor Lockwood was born in Yorkshire in 1895 and trained as a technical artist. After serving in the First World War, he worked in Birmingham, including leading Cadbury’s design studio, and became an associate of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists.

Arthur Lockwood was born in Birmingham in 1934 and began painting with his father when he was young. He later trained in graphic design and worked for Penguin Books, while continuing to draw and paint throughout his life. Their different routes into art and their long span of work give the exhibition its two-generation perspective on the city.

Birmingham Museums Trust says the exhibition was curated by the museum’s visitor experience team, drawing on the experience of people who live or work in Birmingham as well as the team’s audience knowledge. The exhibition also places the Lockwoods’ work beside contemporary perspectives, inviting visitors to consider how Birmingham continues to change and how people experience it differently.

Date, venue and visitor details

The exhibition opens Tuesday 3 November 2026 at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, in the Bridge Gallery. The source announcement does not give an end date, opening hours, admission price, booking arrangements, transport information or accessibility details. Check with Birmingham Museums Trust for current visiting information before setting out.

Source: Birmingham Museums Trust Stories

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Event details and artist biographies were checked against the Birmingham Museums Trust announcement; practical details not provided there are identified as unspecified.

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Matched the Bridge Gallery to Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery.
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