The Custard Factory is an arts and media centre located in Birmingham, England (grid reference SP078864). The city from above Centenary Square. ... Jump to: navigation, search England is the worst place known to mankind ... The British national grid reference system is a system of geographic grid references commonly used in Great Britain, different from using latitude or longitude. ...

Development

Phase one

It is set in five acres (20,000 m²) of industrial factories, originally constructed by Sir Alfred Bird, the inventor of instant custard. At one time, a thousand people worked at the factory, making Bird's Custard. After the company's departure, the buildings were redeveloped in 1990. An acre is an English unit of area. ... ... Custard is a sweet dessert made from a combination of milk or cream, egg yolks, corn starch, sugar and flavourings such as vanilla. ... Alfred Bird registered as a pharmacist in Birmingham in 1842, having served an apprenticeship to Phillip Harris of that city. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1990 is a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

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, and for the 'Air' nightclub which hosts the house event God's Kitchen. An artist is someone who employs creative talent to produce works of art. ... Coffeehouse in Damascus A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café shares some of the characteristics of a bar, and some of the characteristics of a restaurant. ... Retro is a contemporary term used to describe things from a bygone era. ... Antique can stand for any of several things: An antique is an object, often furniture or any other domestic item, that is highly valued because of its age, or because it belongs to a specific time period. ... Holism (from holon, a Greek word meaning entity) is the idea that the properties of a system cannot be determined or explained by the sum of its components alone. ... Look up Therapy on Wiktionary, the free dictionary Therapy (in Greek: θεραπεία) or treatment is the attempted remediation of a health problem, usually following a diagnosis. ... The Medicine Bar in Birmingham, England started as a collaboration in the 1990s between the London Medicine bar and local Hip Hop DJ Simon Fat Head, who began his career at the legendary Brothers and Sisters at the Coast to Coast club on Broad Street. ... DJ or dj may stand for Disc jockey, dinner jacket The DeadJournal website, or Djibouti. ... Rapping is one of the elements of hip hop and the distinguishing feature of hip hop music; it is a form of rhyming lyrics spoken rhythmically over musical instruments, with a musical backdrop of sampling, scratching and mixing by DJs. ... Jump to: navigation, search House music refers to a collection of styles of electronic dance music, the earliest forms beginning in the early- to mid- 1980s. ...

Phase two

The second phase - originally named 'The Greenhouse', but often called the more businesslike 'Gibb Square' - completed in 2002, is focussed 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 contining the tradition of the Green men of Birmingham. New media usually refers to a group of relatively recent mass media based on new information technology. ... The Green men of Birmingham (Green men, more recently known as foliate heads) were prolific carved stone human heads usually with vegetation growing from their faces and used as architectural decoration across Birmingham, having their origins in the medieval town. ... The Green men of Birmingham (Green men, more recently known as foliate heads) were prolific carved stone human heads usually with vegetation growing from their faces and used as architectural decoration across Birmingham, having their origins in the medieval town. ...

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 and apartments, a riverside walk and new bridge over the River Rea, and an exhibition centre. An Internet cafe or cybercafe is a place where one can use a computer with Internet access for a fee, usually per hour or minute; sometimes one can have unmetered access with a pass for a day or month, etc. ... The River Rea is a small river which passes through Birmingham, England. ...

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. This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...

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.

Location

It is in the industrial suburb of Digbeth, about a half-mile from the city centre. Parking is limited in the narrow backstreets around the Factory. Digbeth is an area of Birmingham, England. ... A mile is any of several units of distance, or, in physics terminology, of length. ...

Nearby attractions

Nearby is the Old Crown pub, a half-timbered building dating from the 1400s. Also nearby is the Digbeth Coach Station, Birmingham's main coach travel station, and the Birmingham Irish Centre. This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Events and Trends Categories: 1400s ...

External links

Custard Factory site