Custard Factory - Development

Development

The Custard Factory complex is set in five acres (20,000 m²) of factory buildings, originally constructed by Sir Alfred Frederick Bird (1849–1922), the son of Alfred Bird (1811–1878), the inventor of egg-free 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 to Banbury in 1964, the buildings were redeveloped from 1992, in two initial phases. The architect for the redevelopment project was Birmingham-based Glenn Howells Architects. The redevelopment of the Custard Factory began in January 1992 when the project was given £800,000 as a City Grant Award. This public sector funding levered in £1.6 million of private sector investment for the refurbishment of 100,000 sq ft (9,300 m2) of redundant buildings, providing 145 units for use by artists, designers and communicators. The first phase created around 300 jobs, half of which were previously unemployed. By the completion of the Custard Factory project, it is anticipated that a total of 1,000 jobs will be created.

Phase one consisted of the refurbishment of Scott House which is now home to a community of hundreds of media companies, artists and small creative enterprises. The loading bay was turned into a lake around which the developers installed 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, DJs and rappers. A 220-seat theatre was also provided, inspired by the Custard Factory Theatrical Company who first asked for space at the Custard Factory before the project commenced.

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 40 ft (12 m) high 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.