Birmingham (Garretts Green)

Somewhere real to practise

1 circuits from the test centre on Granby Avenue, Garretts Green, Birmingham, each one 63 minutes or more, taking in the junctions a Birmingham test actually uses. Turn by turn, with the roundabout exits numbered, and a manoeuvre to try on each one.

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Before you drive any of these

Practising in your own car is legal and it is the cheapest way to get better. The rules are short:

Whoever sits beside you must be over 21, qualified to drive that type of car, and have held their full licence for three years.
The car needs L plates front and rear, and insurance that covers you as a learner. Some insurers also want the supervisor to be over 25.
No motorways. A learner can only go on one with an approved instructor in a dual-control car, so none of these routes touch one.

The rules on GOV.UK

These are not the examiner's routes, and nobody else's are either.

DVSA stopped publishing test routes in 2010 and refuses freedom-of-information requests for them. Since December 2017 four tests in five are led by a sat nav the examiner sets up, so even the examiner's route is not a fixed thing you could learn.

What these are: loops on the real roads around the centre, put together so you meet the junctions and road types the test actually assesses. Drive the roads, not a sequence.

You drive. Somebody else reads.

Nobody can read a numbered list while driving, and a sat nav will not tell you which exit to take early enough to get in the right lane. So these routes are written for the person in the passenger seat: the supervising driver who has to be there anyway.

Two ways to do that: print the route and put it on their lap, or send it to them on WhatsApp. Either way they call the turns and you drive.

If the phone and the written steps disagree, the written steps are the route. Google plots its own line between the places we hand it, and it will sometimes take a turn this page would not print.

About the Google Maps links

Google does not follow our route. It draws its own between the places we give it, and it is bound by none of the rules these pages are built on, two of which matter here: no turn in the road and no motorway.

So a route goes to Google in legs, and each leg ends at a real place to stop: a car park, a quiet side street, a loop road, with a manoeuvre to do there. The next leg starts from a parked car, so there is nothing behind you for Google to turn round for. Every leg is opened in Google Maps and checked by hand before its button goes on the page.

A route whose legs have not been checked yet has no Google Maps button. Drive it with the written directions read out, which is how the test itself works anyway.

Two other things Google will not tell you: its travel time assumes a confident driver in clear traffic, so expect ours to be closer; and it will happily route you down something a learner should not be on. Look at it before you set off.

The small map on each route is ours, drawn from the same data. It needs no permission, loads instantly and prints, which is why it is the one you see first.

Route 1 · Swan Island → Spitfire Island

Swan Island and Spitfire Island

North up to Castle Bromwich and back down through Yardley. The shortest here, which is not the same as short.

12.1 milesabout 66 min

Test centre1Stops

Send to my navigator on WhatsApp

Drive it in 5 legs

Each button opens one leg in Google Maps. A leg ends at a stop with something to practise, so do the leg, park, do the manoeuvre, then open the next.

Leg 1 · 2.4 milesTo Hob Moor Road Open inGoogle Maps

Turn the car round in the road, then pull up on the left facing back out

Left off Church Road, a quiet residential road
Keep it slow and look all round before every move. Finish facing back towards Church Road.
Directions for the passenger, leg 17 steps
1. 1
  Start on the test centre access road 70 yards
2. 2
  Turn right into Granby Avenue 0.4 miles
3. 3
  Turn right into Garretts Green Lane 300 yards
4. 4
  Turn left into Meadway 0.7 miles
5. 5
  Turn left into Queens Road 0.6 miles
6. 6
  Turn left into Church Road 0.5 miles
7. 7
  At the roundabout, take the 1st exit onto Hob Moor Road 100 yards
  Approach in the left lane and signal left.
8. Stop here: Turn the car round in the road, then pull up on the left facing back out.
Leg 2 · 2.5 milesTo Lyndon Road Open inGoogle Maps

Pull up on the left, then turn the car round in the road

Right off Station Road, a quiet residential road
Use forward and reverse, as few moves as you need, and finish facing back towards Station Road.
Directions for the passenger, leg 28 steps
1. 1
  Facing back the way you came in, drive along Hob Moor Road to the end 100 yards
2. 2
  At the roundabout, take the 1st exit onto Church Road 290 yards
  Approach in the left lane and signal left.
3. 3
  At the roundabout, take the 2nd exit onto Church Road 0.3 miles
  Approach in the left lane and signal left.
4. 4
  At Swan Island, take the 4th exit onto Church Road 0.3 miles
  Approach in the left lane and signal left.
5. 5
  Turn left to stay on Church Road 340 yards
6. 6
  At the roundabout, take the 2nd exit onto Stoney Lane 0.7 miles
  Approach in the left lane and signal left.
7. 7
  Carry on into Station Road 0.6 miles
8. 8
  Turn right into Lyndon Road 150 yards
9. Stop here: Pull up on the left, then turn the car round in the road.
Leg 3 · 3 milesTo Hawker Drive Open inGoogle Maps

Parallel park behind a parked car, then turn the car round in the road

Left off Tangmere Drive, a quiet residential road
Check all round before each move, and finish facing back the way you came in, ready for the next leg.
Directions for the passenger, leg 312 steps
1. 1
  Facing back the way you came in, drive along Lyndon Road to the end 150 yards
2. 2
  Turn right into Station Road 370 yards
3. 3
  Turn right into A4040 50 yards
4. 4
  At the roundabout, take the 1st exit onto A4040 340 yards
  Approach in the left lane and signal left.
5. 5
  At the roundabout, take the 3rd exit onto Stechford Lane 30 yards
  No signal on the approach. Keep left unless the markings say otherwise, then signal left after the exit before yours.
6. 6
  Carry on into Stechford Road 0.9 miles
7. 7
  At Coleshill Road, take the 2nd exit onto Newport Road
  No signal on the approach. Keep left unless the markings say otherwise, then signal left after the exit before yours.
8. 8
  At the roundabout, take the 1st exit onto Newport Road 0.5 miles
  Approach in the left lane and signal left.
9. 9
  At the roundabout, take the 1st exit onto Newport Road 260 yards
  No signal on the approach. Keep left unless the markings say otherwise, then signal left after the exit before yours.
10. 10
  Carry on into Chester Road 0.3 miles
11. 11
  At Spitfire Island, take the 3rd exit onto Tangmere Drive 180 yards
  Approach in the left lane and signal left.
12. 12
  Turn left into Hawker Drive 80 yards
13. Stop here: Parallel park behind a parked car, then turn the car round in the road.
Leg 4 · 1.9 milesTo Buckland End Open inGoogle Maps

Pull up on the left, then move off again

On the route, the stretch of Buckland End between Heathland Avenue and Cole Hall Lane
Choose a safe, legal place and stop smoothly. Move off only when the road behind is clear.
Directions for the passenger, leg 49 steps
1. 1
  Facing back the way you came in, drive along Hawker Drive to the end 80 yards
2. 2
  Turn left into Tangmere Drive 190 yards
3. 3
  At the roundabout, take the 3rd exit onto Tangmere Drive 370 yards
  Approach in the left lane and signal left.
4. 4
  At Spitfire Island, take the 1st exit onto Chester Road 0.3 miles
  Approach in the left lane and signal left.
5. 5
  Carry on into Newport Road 200 yards
6. 6
  At the roundabout, take the 3rd exit onto Newport Road 0.5 miles
  No signal on the approach. Keep left unless the markings say otherwise, then signal left after the exit before yours.
7. 7
  At the roundabout, take the 1st exit onto Bradford Road 160 yards
  Approach in the left lane and signal left.
8. 8
  Turn right into Heathland Avenue 0.3 miles
9. 9
  At the roundabout, take the 2nd exit onto Buckland End 120 yards
  Approach in the left lane and signal left.
10. Stop here: Pull up on the left, then move off again.
Leg 5 · 2.3 milesBack to the test centre Open inGoogle Maps
The last leg. Nothing to do at the end of it but park.
Directions for the passenger, leg 510 steps
1. 1
  Check your mirrors and blind spot, then move off along Buckland End 130 yards
2. 2
  At the roundabout, take the 2nd exit onto Cole Hall Lane 0.7 miles
  Approach in the left lane and signal left.
3. 3
  Turn left into Crossfield Road 260 yards
4. 4
  At the roundabout, take the 2nd exit onto Eddish Road 0.3 miles
  Approach in the left lane and signal left.
5. 5
  Turn left into Folliott Road 260 yards
6. 6
  At the roundabout, take the 2nd exit onto Mirfield Road 240 yards
  Approach in the left lane and signal left.
7. 7
  Turn right into Meadway 120 yards
8. 8
  At the roundabout, take the 1st exit onto Garretts Green Lane 340 yards
  Approach in the left lane and signal left.
9. 9
  Turn left into Granby Avenue 0.4 miles
10. 10
  Turn left into the test centre.
11. You are back at the test centre. Park where you started.

Stop only where it is safe and legal, and read the signs: a car park is somebody's, and a residential street has driveways and junctions to stay clear of.

Before you drive it

Watch somebody else drive Birmingham first

Instructors film these roads constantly. Watch for the roads: which roundabout, which multi-lane approach, where the lanes split. Not for a sequence to memorise, because the sequence is the one thing that changes.

Find more Birmingham route videos

Opens a YouTube search for this centre. A video only goes on this page once somebody here has watched the whole thing.

Birmingham (Garretts Green) · free

Is your Birmingham (Garretts Green) test on the right date?

Practising for a date that is too far off, or one that comes before you are ready? A swap with a learner at Birmingham (Garretts Green) who wants the opposite moves both of you, and DVSA does it over the phone. DVSA's median wait from booking to test at Birmingham (Garretts Green) was 11.4 weeks in September 2026. Tell us which way you want to move and we email you when a learner who could swap with you joins. Your email is never shown to anyone.

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Where the roads come from

Every road, roundabout and car park named on this page comes from OpenStreetMap, used under the Open Database Licence. Trust the signs, not us.

Distances and times are calculated, not driven. The turns between the junctions are worked out by OSRM, an open source router running on that same map data. The times assume town-centre averages, so treat them as a rough guide.

Spotted something wrong? Tell us and we will fix it, or fix it in OpenStreetMap and it corrects itself everywhere.