Things to do in Birmingham

Culture · Downtown, around Kelly Ingram Park

The 16th Street Baptist Church where four girls were killed by a Klan bomb on 15 September 1963, Kelly Ingram Park where the fire hoses and dogs were used on schoolchildren, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute and the A.G. Gaston Motel — a national monument, all within two blocks.

Local tip: Do the Civil Rights Institute first and give it three hours, then walk the park's sculpture circuit and cross to the church. The church runs its own tours and they are worth taking. This is the most important ground in the city and it is not a half-hour stop.

Landmark · Just east of downtown, off First Avenue North

A blast furnace complex that ran from 1882 to 1971, preserved as a National Historic Landmark — rusting stoves, casting sheds and pipework you can walk through, with a metal arts programme still casting on site.

Local tip: Free to walk the site on most days and genuinely eerie. Go late afternoon when the light comes through the stoves. It also hosts concerts and a very well-known Halloween haunt, which sells out.

Nightlife · East of downtown along 41st Street, and around 29th Street South

The two districts that carry most of Birmingham's independent bars, breweries, music venues and restaurants — Avondale around its brewery and park, Lakeview closer to UAB and the medical district.

Local tip: Avondale is the better evening and the more interesting food; Lakeview is where the hospital and university crowd goes. Avondale Park's amphitheatre has free summer concerts, and Saturn on 41st Street is the best small music venue in the state.

Landmark · Top of Red Mountain, above Homewood

The largest cast iron statue in the world, made for the 1904 St Louis World's Fair, on a tower with an observation deck over the whole valley — with Red Mountain Park's exposed ore seams and 25 kilometres of trail further west along the ridge.

Local tip: Go up at dusk: the city lights come on below you and the tower stays open into the evening in summer. Then do Red Mountain Park separately on a weekend morning — the old mine entrances and the zip line are the draw and it is far less visited than it deserves.

Nature · Downtown, along First Avenue South

Nine hectares of lawn, wetland and rail-side walkway built on derelict railway land in 2010, credited with restarting downtown Birmingham, with the Rotary Trail cutting east from it in a former rail trench.

Local tip: The best free thing downtown, and the Sunday afternoon crowd is the most genuinely mixed gathering in the city. Regions Field is next door — minor-league baseball tickets cost less than a cinema ticket and it is a good evening.

Landmark · West of downtown, in the Ensley direction

Opened in 1910 and the oldest professional baseball park in the United States — home to the Birmingham Barons and to the Black Barons of the Negro Leagues, where Willie Mays played as a teenager.

Local tip: It is still standing, still playable and still mostly unvisited. Check the schedule for the Rickwood Classic and other events rather than turning up cold, and read about the Black Barons before you go — the building means very little without that.