Skip to content
Kingstanding Together

Trail · About 3 km (2 miles), one way · About 1 to 1½ hours on foot, plus time for any visit to Soho House

The Soho and Handsworth trail

A walk through Boulton & Watt country: Matthew Boulton’s home, the hidden sites of his factory and mint, the lodge of James Watt’s house, and the church where Boulton, Watt and Murdoch are buried.

From the 1760s this corner of Handsworth was where Boulton and Watt lived and worked. Matthew Boulton lived at Soho House beside his factory. Less than a mile away, James Watt had his house at Heathfield, with his attic workshop. Both men, and their engineer William Murdoch, are buried at St Mary’s Church.

Much of it has gone. The factory and the mint are under houses and gardens, and Heathfield Hall was pulled down in 1927–28. But the house, the church and a gatehouse survive, and the street names still remember them. This trail joins them up.

5 of 5 places shown

Old map
11. Soho House — Surviving22. Soho Mint — Lost, Site redeveloped33. Soho Manufactory — Lost, Site redeveloped44. Heathfield Hall — Lost, Site redeveloped55. St Mary’s Church, Handsworth — 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. Soho House

    Surviving

    Start at Boulton’s home on Soho Avenue, off Soho Road. Look for the blue plaque: “Matthew Boulton 1766–1809 lived here”. Inside, the dining room is the Lunar Room, where the Lunar Society met.

  2. 2. Soho Mint

    LostSite redeveloped

    Walk down to South Road. Somewhere in the back gardens here, between the house and the factory, Boulton hid his steam-powered mint, which struck the 1797 cartwheel pennies. Time Team found part of its brick drive-shaft tunnel in 1996. View from the street only.

  3. 3. Soho Manufactory

    LostSite redeveloped

    Around Factory Road and South Road stood the Soho Manufactory, with its Palladian front facing the main road. It was gone by 1863. The Hockley Brook, which fed its mill pool, ran along the south side of the site, and Soho Pool Way recalls the pool.

  4. 4. Heathfield Hall

    LostSite redeveloped

    Head north to Radnor Road. The lodge at No. 33 was the gatehouse to Heathfield Hall, Watt’s home from 1790 until his death in 1819; it has a Birmingham Civic Society blue plaque. The hall stood inside the loop of West Drive and North Drive, and James Watt Drive is named after him.

  5. 5. St Mary’s Church, Handsworth

    Surviving

    Finish at St Mary’s on Hamstead Road, next to Handsworth Park. Inside are Chantrey’s marble statue of Watt (1825) in its own chapel, Flaxman’s monument to Boulton with a carving of the Soho works, and Chantrey’s bust of Murdoch.

Before you go

Soho House is a museum run by Birmingham Museums Trust. Opening is limited, and the house has recently been closed for maintenance, so check the Birmingham Museums website before you go: https://www.birminghammuseums.org.uk/soho-house

The sites of the Soho Manufactory and Soho Mint are under private houses and gardens on and around South Road. Nothing can be seen above ground. Please look from the street only.

The lodge on Radnor Road is a private house. Look at its blue plaque from the pavement.

St Mary’s Church is a working parish church. The monuments to Boulton, Watt and Murdoch are inside and can be seen only when the church is open, for example on open days during Birmingham Heritage Week. Check with the church before you go.

The route uses Soho Road and Hamstead Road, which are busy main roads. The distance is an estimate based on the stops’ positions.

Share