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Kingstanding Together

Trail · Part 1 (north): about 9 km (5½ miles) between stops. Part 2 (south): about 5 km (3 miles) between stops. Both parts start in or near the city centre. · Allow half a day for each part, more if you visit Soho House

The Lunar Society trail

The homes, workplaces, chapel and graves of the Lunar Society, spread across Birmingham from Great Barr to Edgbaston. Best done by car or bus in two parts: a northern loop around Soho and Handsworth, and a southern one from the city centre to Sparkbrook and Edgbaston.

From the 1760s a group of friends met in and around Birmingham once a month, near the full moon, so they could ride home by its light. They called themselves the Lunar Society. Matthew Boulton, James Watt, Joseph Priestley, William Withering, Samuel Galton, Erasmus Darwin and Josiah Wedgwood were among them. Between them they changed engineering, chemistry, medicine and manufacturing.

They did not live close together. Boulton was at Soho, Watt first at Harper’s Hill and then at Heathfield, Galton out at Great Barr, Priestley at Fair Hill in Sparkbrook and Withering at Edgbaston Hall. So this is not a single walk. The places are spread over about eleven kilometres from north to south, and several can only be seen from the road. Do it in two parts, by car or by bus with short walks, and check opening times before you set out.

7 of 7 places shown

Old map
11. Watt’s house at Harper’s Hill (Regent Place) — Lost, Partly surviving22. Soho House — Surviving33. St Mary’s Church, Handsworth — Surviving44. Great Barr Hall — Partly surviving, At risk55. New Meeting House — Surviving but altered66. Fair Hill — Lost, Site redeveloped77. Edgbaston Hall — Surviving
Map © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL). Old map: Ordnance Survey six-inch, 1888–1913, reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland (CC BY 4.0). A dashed ring means the position is approximate; a shaded ring means only the general area is known.

Every place on the map

The stops

  1. 1. Watt’s house at Harper’s Hill (Regent Place)

    LostPartly surviving

    Part 1. Start in the Jewellery Quarter at Regent Place, where James Watt lived at Harper’s Hill from the 1770s until 1790. The house has gone; a blue plaque is on 15–17 Regent Place, and 13A may be a surviving stable wing.

  2. 2. Soho House

    Surviving

    About 2 km north-west. Boulton’s home from 1766 and the Society’s favourite meeting place. The dining room is the Lunar Room. Check opening times before you travel.

  3. 3. St Mary’s Church, Handsworth

    Surviving

    About 1.3 km north. Boulton, Watt and William Murdoch are buried here. Inside are Chantrey’s marble statue of Watt and Flaxman’s monument to Boulton.

  4. 4. Great Barr Hall

    Partly survivingAt risk

    About 5 km north by road. Samuel Galton leased this Gothick house from 1785 to 1797, and the Society met here. Private and derelict: there is no access, and little can be seen from public roads.

  5. 5. New Meeting House

    Surviving but altered

    Part 2. Start in the city centre at St Michael’s Catholic Church, Moor Street, built as the New Meeting House where Joseph Priestley preached. The first chapel was burned in the riots of July 1791.

  6. 6. Fair Hill

    LostSite redeveloped

    About 2 km south-east. Priestley’s house and laboratory stood here, between Priestley Road and Larches Street, until rioters burned it on 14 July 1791. Nothing survives above ground.

  7. 7. Edgbaston Hall

    Surviving

    About 2.7 km west. William Withering, the doctor of the foxglove, lived here from 1786. Rioters threatened it in 1791. Now a golf clubhouse; ask the club before visiting.

Before you go

Part 1 (north) runs from the Jewellery Quarter to Soho House, St Mary’s Handsworth and Great Barr. Part 2 (south) runs from St Michael’s in the city centre to Sparkbrook and Edgbaston. Distances are measured in straight lines between the stops, so real journeys are longer.

Soho House is a museum run by Birmingham Museums Trust. In October 2026 its website said the house was closed for maintenance, with visits by limited pre-booked tours only. Check before you go: https://www.birminghammuseums.org.uk/soho-house

Great Barr Hall is on private land and the building is derelict and unsafe. There is no public access. The Lunar Society Moonstones, carved memorials made in 1998, are a short distance away at Queslett and can be seen from the pavement.

Edgbaston Hall is the clubhouse of a private golf club. Contact the club before visiting.

Fair Hill and Withering’s later home, The Larches, have gone; the sites are residential streets in Sparkbrook.

St Mary’s Handsworth and St Michael’s, Moor Street, are working churches; check service and opening times. The monuments at St Mary’s can be seen only when the church is open.

All the stops are served by local buses. Use the Transport for West Midlands journey planner (https://www.tfwm.org.uk/) to plan the hops between stops. Parking near most stops is on-street.

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