Custard Factory
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Image:CustardFactoryAndDeritend.jpgThe Custard Factory is an arts and media production centre in Birmingham, England (Template:Gbmapping).
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.
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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. At one time, a thousand people worked there. After the company's departure, the buildings were redeveloped from 1990, in two phases. The architect for the 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, a café, a retro antique shops, meeting rooms, dance studios, holistic therapy rooms, a small art gallery in the foyer, a record shop, sculpture (a huge iron dragon crawls up the exterior of the Medicine Bar), and intricate fountains with a central pool area which is sometimes emptied to allow for dance music events. The Medicine Bar has 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 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 continuing the tradition of the Green Men of Birmingham.
Future plans
There are many plans for the future Custard Factory. The student flats, cybercafe, 24-hour access, and a creche - 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.
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. 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.
Three-quarters of a mile away is BIAD, the largest British university art & design teaching and research centre outside London.
Nearby locations
Within the Custard Factory quarter are two other renowned music venues, The Sanctuary (formorly 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; the Birmingham Irish Centre; and the Bull Ring shopping centre, with its landmark Selfridges building.