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The Jewellery quarter has a long standing reputation and is just north of the city centre. The area was first populate in the seventeen hundreds first by toymakers and then by buckle makers who attracted scores of silversmiths and goldsmiths and jewellers. The area is still packed with jewellery related firms, in fact more than five hundred of them and most of the jewellers are in fact in this area down Warstone Lane and Victoria Street. The most interesting place here for the visitor is the Museum of the Jewellery Quarter that is just off Warstone Lane. It is constructed around a fifties factory and it demonstrates the rise and fall of the city and its trade and commerce. The factory itself is the real attraction with the environment and conditions faithfully imitated. This was the factory where the jewellery manufacturers were huddled into cramped spaces without proper ventilation to produce a constant number of jewellery items, earrings and rings and brooches. The old machines are still used for demonstrations and to show how various designs are produced. The area is also jammed with factory outlet stores that offer the best at low prices. |