Birmingham, UK

Birmingham is the second-largest city in the UK with roughly 1.16 million residents, and it stood at the heart of the Industrial Revolution. The Birmingham Canal Navigations, begun in 1769, grew into the world's most complex canal network, with roughly 35 km still navigable today. The 1832 Town Hall, designed by Joseph Hansom of Hansom cab fame, hosted the 1900 premiere of Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius. The Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery holds the world's largest collection of Pre-Raphaelite paintings, while the 2003 Selfridges building is clad in 15,000 spun-aluminium discs. J.R.R. Tolkien also grew up here from 1896, drawing on the landscape for his later work.