United Kingdom · England · Solihull
Shirley, Solihull — Area Guide & Where to Stay
Shirley is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull, in the West Midlands, joined without a break to Solihull and Birmingham.
About Shirley
Where to stay in Shirley
Not every neighbourhood fits every trip — here's what each one is good for.
Shirley runs into Solihull and Birmingham without a visible break, so the choice is less about which town than about which end of that continuous built-up stretch a guest wants to wake up in. Solihull is the nearer town. St James the Great, Shirley and the Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady of the Wayside sit inside the town itself, which suits anyone who would rather walk than drive between the two boroughs.
Birmingham keeps the bigger room supply, a short run out from the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull.
About Shirley
What are the main landmarks in Shirley?
Shirley's register of named landmarks runs short. St James the Great, Shirley and Shirley Baptist Church carry the parish end of it, and the Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady of the Wayside adds a third congregation to a town whose recorded names are almost all religious. Scorers, Shirley is the exception.
Nothing here competes with Solihull or Birmingham for monuments, which is normal for a settlement that was rural before the built-up area reached it.
What is the history of Shirley?
Warwickshire came first. Shirley was a rural settlement in that county long before the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull existed, and the change that mattered was not a charter but the spread of building that joined it to Solihull and Birmingham. The West Midlands replaced Warwickshire on the map.
What remains of the rural settlement is a name and a parish, held inside a continuous urban area shared with Solihull and Birmingham.
Where is Shirley?
Shirley lies in the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull, in the West Midlands, with no open ground left between it, Solihull and Birmingham.
Good for
Updated August 2026