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37679

            The Deluge by Toin Adams at Zellig in The Custard Factory in Digbeth, Birmingham, West Midlands.

The Custard Factory is an arts, retail and media production centre based in the 5 acre site of the former Bird's Custard factory by Birmingham-based Glenn Howells Architects. 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. 

It is set in fifteen acres of factory buildings, originally constructed by Sir Alfred Frederick Bird, the son of Alfred Bird , the inventor of egg-free custard. The architectural firm commissioned to design the building was Hamblins. The architect may have been 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. 

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 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.

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.

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.

Taken in: UK / England / Digbeth (show map)

Taken on: November 8, 2012

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Birmingham

West Midlands

England

United Kingdom

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Digbeth

Custard Factory

Bennie Gray

Custard

Factory

Gibb Street

Devonshire House

Alfred

Bird

Glenn Howells Architects

Glenn Howells

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Irish Quarter

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media production centre

arts

retail

shop

shops

shopping

Bird's Custard factory

Birds Custard

Medicine Bar

Punch Records

Fused Magazine

Tindal Street Press

National Trust

Press Association

Terrence Higgins Trust

Prince's Trust

Royal Town Planning Institute

Sir Alfred Frederick Bird

Alfred Bird

Hamblins

Augustus William Brenchley Macer-Wright

City Grant Award

Gibb Square

Scott House

Advantage West Midlands

Zellig

old Trades Union Studies Centre

South Birmingham College

Vivid

Maverick Television

North One Television

Rhubarb Radio

Gadget Show

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art

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The Deluge

Toin Adams « less

Sets appears in: • West Midlands • Eastside more » • Digbeth • Birmingham « less

Groups appears in: • The Midlands • Midlanders more » • Birmingham • Travel Photography • City • Sculptures, Statues, and Public Art • Statues and Sculptures. • Birmingham: It's Not Shit • Architectural Interiors • Interior Architecture • Great Britain • IMAGE`S OF BUILDINGS - OLD AND NEW • Digbeth • West Midlands • We travel the World • city & the streets • "Unlimited Photos: No Rules" • View of Worcestershire, Warwickshire and Birmingham. • Buildings of Birmingham (the original) • Birmingham Eastside • City Scapes & Street • Engineering as Art • Midlands Landmarks • Birmingham Post and Mail • Anything you would show your Grandparents. • Photographers from around the world • PBWA - Photography By Wandering About • Birmingham : A Walk Around Town • A STATUE..PLAQUES • Flickr Photo Album Unlimited & Instant Posting « less

Camera: Nikon D90, f/5.6, 1/125 sec, 18mm (=27mm), ISO 220 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Nikon D90
Aperture:	f/5.6
Exposure Time:	0.008 sec (1/125)
Focal Length:	18mm (35mm equivalent: 27mm)
ISO:	220
Exposure Bias:	+1 EV
Flash:	Auto, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Not Defined
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Windows Photo Editor 10.0.10011.16384
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