Custard Factory

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Devonshire House (left) - The Custard Factory

The Custard Factory in Gibb Street

The Custard Factory is an arts and media production centre in Birmingham, England (grid reference SP078864).

Located on the redeveloped site of the Bird's Custard factory in the industrial district of Digbeth, it is home to a community of businesses, primarily with an artistic and media slant, but also including entertainment venues and regional offices of national charitable organisations. They include the Medicine Bar, Punch Records and the Tindal Street Press, and the Birmingham branches of the National Trust, the Press Association, Royal Town Planning Institute, Terrence Higgins Trust, and Prince's Trust. The project was set up by Bennie Gray.^[1]

1 Development
- 1.1 Future plans
2 Co-located media training
- 2.1 Nearby entertainment and shopping locations
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Development

The Custard Factory complex is set in five acres (20,000 m²) of factory buildings, originally constructed by Sir Alfred Bird, the inventor of instant custard. The architectural firm commissioned to design the building was Hamblins. The architect was Augustus William Brenchley Macer-Wright who married Ellen Kate Hamblin, known as Jenny, who was the daughter of the man behind the Architect Firm's name. At one time, a thousand people worked there.

After the Bird company's departure, the buildings were redeveloped from 1990, in two initial phases. The architect for the redevelopement project was Birmingham-based Glenn Howells Architects.

Phase one is now home to a community of hundreds of media companies, artists and small creative enterprises. There are around 200 studio workshops above the ground floor - plus on the ground floor a café, meeting rooms, dance studios, holistic therapy rooms, art display cases in the foyer and a larger gallery space called "The Gallery" at the rear, a record and clothes shop, sculpture (a huge iron dragon crawls up the exterior of the Medicine Bar), and fountains within a central pool area which is sometimes emptied to allow for dance music events. The Medicine Bar and Kitchen have provided a stage for many musicians, DJ's and rappers.

Phase two - originally named 'The Greenhouse', but now 'Gibb Square' after the Gibb Street location - was completed opposite the Custard Factory in 2002. It focuses on new media and media businesses. It includes a hundred studio/offices, a ring of poolside shops, galleries and restaurants plus the Green Man, a 40ft-high (12m) sculpture by Tawny Gray - a huge structure made from vegetation and stone, standing next to a large water feature and overlooking the alleyway that divides the Custard Factory from the Gibb Square development.

[edit] Future plans

There are many plans for the future Custard Factory. The student flats, cybercafe, 24-hour access, and a crèche - all promised for the first phase - have yet to materialise. Currently promised are a luxury hotel, a riverside walk and new bridge over the River Rea, a restaurant and an exhibition centre.

In March 2007, the regional development agency, Advantage West Midlands, announced new funding for the Custard Factory of £9.6m, to open 100 new office and workspace units by Jan 2008.

[edit] Co-located media training

The presence of the Custard Factory has enticed two media training agencies to locate nearby. The old Trades Union Studies Centre, very near, is now a media and arts annexe of South Birmingham College with a new building alongside it. In 2005, the VIVID media centre has moved from the Jewellery Quarter to a site very near the Custard Factory.

About 800 yards away from the Factory is the new "Progress Works" complex, opened in 2005 as part of the Custard Factory quarter, on Heath Mill Lane. "The Bond" complex is also a short walk away.

Three-quarters of a mile north is BIAD, the largest British university art & design teaching and research centre outside London.

[edit] Nearby entertainment and shopping locations

Within the Custard Factory quarter are two other renowned music venues, The Sanctuary (formerly the Digbeth Institute) and AIR, home to and owned by Godskitchen the house superclub. The Custard Factory is close to the Old Crown pub, a half-timbered building dating from the 1400s; Digbeth Coach Station, Birmingham's main coach travel station; and the Bull Ring which is Birmingham's main shopping centre, with its landmark Selfridges building.