Custard Factory set for a major overhaul

5th Feb 2010

POPULAR Dig­beth nightspot the Fac­tory Club is due for an overhaul.

The devel­op­ments, which will begin in May of this year, will mean that the cur­rent Fac­tory Club set­ting will no longer host fre­quent events. This includes the Med­i­cine Bar and Kitchen areas of the venue.

Instead, these will be located in what is cur­rently Space 2, two sites oppo­site this area and The Archers, all of which will be rede­vel­oped and improved.

The venue in its present form has been open for 14 years. It was orig­i­nally the site of the Bird’s Cus­tard fac­tory until 1994 when the com­pany relo­cated. The build­ing was derelict until the first phase of its rede­vel­op­ment in 1992, which was funded £800,000 by a City Grant Award.

The sec­ond phase of this came in 2002, when new media busi­nesses set up at ‘Gibb Square’ sec­tion of the lcomplex.

At present, the venue hosts reg­u­lar club nights such as the pop­u­lar ‘Stu­pid Under­ground’. These often fea­ture renowned bands and DJ’s, and are espe­cially well-attended by  Birm­ing­ham stu­dents.
The Cus­tard Fac­tory also houses var­i­ous retail out­lets and cul­tural exhibits, and is widely thought of as the cen­tre of Birmingham’s cre­ative scene.

There have been rumours that the Cus­tard Fac­tory is clos­ing alto­gether to make room for more office space, with a Face­book group set up to protest against this. How­ever, the own­ers of Fac­tory Events are keen to dis­pel these and main­tain that the new devel­op­ment will make things big­ger and better.

The new Fac­tory Club will be much larger, with a capac­ity of up to 2,000 peo­ple. It will also boast a state-of the-art light­ing sys­tem.
Events will still be held at the cur­rent loca­tion of the Fac­tory Club, but these will not be organ­ised by the Fac­tory Events company.

Steve Carter, pro­moter for Fac­tory Events who works along­side the owner of the Fac­tory Club, said of the new venue: ‘This is the begin­ning of a new era.‘
’This is our own choice; we are much more con­fi­dent in Space 2 and large, multi-room events.’

Birm­ing­ham stu­dents seem to wel­come the devel­op­ment, but hope that the new, larger venue retains the indi­vid­ual char­ac­ter of the present one.
Jack Kisby-Carroll, a second-year His­tory of Art stu­dent, said of the plans: ‘The venue is the heart and soul of Dig­beth. I hope it doesn’t lose its char­ac­ter, but the new devel­op­ment could help clean up the club’s rep­u­ta­tion and maybe pro­vide more oppor­tu­ni­ties for local artists.’

Second-year Eng­lish and His­tory of Art stu­dent Freya Gosling said: ‘The Cus­tard Fac­tory is home to the only emerg­ing cul­tural scene in Birm­ing­ham. They need to keep its authenticity.’