UK Championship 2027 Confirmed for Birmingham!
The UK Cube Association has confirmed that the UK Speedcubing Championship will return to Birmingham in 2027, with the competition once again taking place at the University of Birmingham Sport & Fitness centre on 27-29th August 2027
The announcement means that the UK Championship will be held in Birmingham for the third consecutive year, following the 2025 and 2026 competitions.
Even better for anyone already planning ahead, the competition is scheduled to remain on the same late-August weekend which will be the 27-29th August next year, making Birmingham and the August Bank Holiday weekend look increasingly like the new permanent home in the calendar for the biggest UK speedcubing competition of the year.
UK Championship Returns to the University of Birmingham
The move to Birmingham began with the Rubik's UK Championship 2025, which took place from 22nd–24th August 2025 in the Munrow Arena at the University of Birmingham Sport & Fitness centre.
The venue proved large enough to accommodate the rapidly growing UK cubing community, and the championship returned for Kewbz UK Championship 2026.
Now, rather than searching for another venue for next year, the UKCA has confirmed that the championship will be returning to the same venue again in 2027.
That should make planning considerably easier for regular competitors. Anyone who attended in 2025 or 2026 will already be familiar with the venue, transport options and surrounding area.
Birmingham is also extremely well connected to the rest of the country, making it a logical location for a national championship attracting competitors from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, as well as many international competitors.
UK Championship Has Moved Around the Country
Although Birmingham is beginning to establish itself as the home of the modern UK Championship, the competition has been held in several different parts of the country over the years.
The championship's recent history has included Leicester, Stevenage, Bristol, Coventry and Birmingham.
Leicester – 2012-2014
The UK Open 2012 was held at the O2 Academy Leicester, with 76 competitors.
The same venue then hosted the renamed UK Rubik's Cube Championship in both 2013 and 2014.
Those competitions were considerably smaller than the UK Championships we see today. The 2013 event had just 86 competitors, while 87 competed in 2014.
For comparison, the 2024 UK Championship in Coventry had 469 competitors, showing just how dramatically competitive speedcubing in the UK has grown.
Stevenage – 2015 and 2017-2019
In 2015 the championship moved to The Forum in Stevenage, which would go on to become one of the venues most closely associated with UK Championship.
The 2015 competition attracted 169 competitors.
After a one-year move to Bristol, the championship returned to Stevenage in 2017, and remained there for 2018 and 2019.
Competitor numbers continued to rise during this period, with 232 competitors in 2017, 247 in 2018 and 289 in 2019.
For several years, therefore, Stevenage effectively became the home of the UK Championship.
Bristol – 2016
The exception to the Stevenage era was UK Championship 2016, which took place at the Mercure Bristol Grand Hotel.
178 competitors attended the competition, which was won overall in 3x3 by Alexander Lau with a 7.85 average.
Bristol had also played an important role earlier in UK cubing history, hosting the UK Open at Armada House in both 2010 and 2011.
No UK Championship in 2020 or 2021
The annual run of UK Championships was interrupted by the government imposed lockdowns and restrictions on events, with no UK Championship taking place in 2020 or 2021.
When the event finally returned in 2022, it did so on a much larger scale and at a completely new venue, many people had taken up cubing during lockdowns while bored at home and this made the cubing community significantly larger, requiring the UKCA to frantically search for a much larger venue. This was an era where cubing competitions would fill up in seconds and people were forced to press the reload button on the competition page at exactly 7:00:00PM to register, with bad WiFi sometimes denying people a spot.
Coventry – 2022-2024
The Coventry Building Society Arena became the next long-term home of the UK Championship.
The venue hosted the championship for three consecutive years from 2022 to 2024, providing the space needed for a much larger competition than had been possible at the previous venues.
By 2024, UK Championship had grown to 469 competitors, with a competitor limit of 500.
The Coventry era also saw the championship develop into much more of a major spectator event, with multiple stages, large vendor areas and hundreds of competitors competing across three days. Unfortunately the 2024 UK Championship saw a significant noise disturbance from the Herbalife conference taking place next door which is likely to have contributed to the UKCA's decision to seek out a new location for the next year.
Birmingham – 2025-2027
The championship moved a relatively short distance down the road for 2025, arriving at the University of Birmingham Sport & Fitness centre.
Unlike most earlier UK Championships, which were generally held in October or November, the 2025 competition took place from 22nd–24th August.
UK Championship returned to the same venue in 2026, and the UKCA has now confirmed that it will remain there for 2027.
That gives us another three-year run at a single venue:
Coventry: 2022, 2023, 2024
Birmingham: 2025, 2026, 2027
It will be interesting to see whether Birmingham continues beyond 2027 and establishes itself as an even longer-term home for UK Championship.
Previous UK Championship Locations
The recent history of the UK's biggest speedcubing competition looks like this:
| Year | City | Venue |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Bristol | Armada House |
| 2011 | Bristol | Armada House |
| 2012 | Leicester | O2 Academy Leicester |
| 2013 | Leicester | O2 Academy Leicester |
| 2014 | Leicester | O2 Academy Leicester |
| 2015 | Stevenage | The Forum |
| 2016 | Bristol | Mercure Bristol Grand Hotel |
| 2017 | Stevenage | The Forum |
| 2018 | Stevenage | The Forum |
| 2019 | Stevenage | The Forum |
| 2020 | — | No Championship |
| 2021 | — | No Championship |
| 2022 | Coventry | Coventry Building Society Arena |
| 2023 | Coventry | Coventry Building Society Arena |
| 2024 | Coventry | Coventry Building Society Arena |
| 2025 | Birmingham | University of Birmingham Sport & Fitness |
| 2026 | Birmingham | University of Birmingham Sport & Fitness |
| 2027 | Birmingham | University of Birmingham Sport & Fitness |
The competitions were called the UK Open in the earlier years before the UK Championship name became established.
UK Championship Has Grown Dramatically
Looking back at the previous venues also demonstrates just how much UK speedcubing has grown.
The UK Open in 2010 attracted only 54 competitors. By 2015, that had increased to 169, and by 2019 there were 289 competitors in Stevenage.
When UK Championship returned after the pandemic, the scale increased again. The Coventry Building Society Arena allowed the competition to accommodate hundreds of competitors, and the 2024 event ultimately had 469 competitors.
The University of Birmingham has continued that large-scale format, making it possible to run a huge three-day competition with several competition stages simultaneously.
It is quite a change from the comparatively small UK Opens of the early 2010s!
When Is UK Championship 2027?
The UKCA has confirmed that UK Championship 2027 will return to the University of Birmingham on the same weekend as the 2026 competition.
More information about the competition, including the WCA competition page, registration dates, qualification requirements, events and schedule, should become available closer to the event.
UK Championship registration has become increasingly competitive as the event has grown, so anyone hoping to compete will want to keep an eye out for the official competition announcement and registration date.
After three years in Coventry followed by three years in Birmingham, the Midlands has certainly established itself as the centre of the UK speedcubing calendar.
We'll see you in Birmingham in 2027! Who knows? Maybe Speedcubing.org will be able to sponsor it next year too?
