Why Digbeth's Custard Factory still matters

National World - LocalTV

Once home to powdered pudding, now a home for punk posters and tech start-ups - Birmingham’s Custard Factory is at the heart of Independent Retailer Month. We explore how this iconic Digbeth site became a creative sanctuary for over 400 businesses.

Transcript

00:01This place was never meant to survive, left derelict.

00:04After the custard trade moved on, it could have gone the way

00:07of so many other factories in Birmingham, flattened and forgotten.

00:11But instead it became something else entirely.

00:14In the early 90s, developers, artists and grafters

00:17turned the ruins into a haven for people with ideas

00:20and nowhere else to put them.

00:22Now the custard factory is home to over 400 businesses

00:25and it's more than just a postcode, it's a mindset.

00:28Crystal Factory Digbus is a lot of local independents,

00:32a lot of people doing their own thing, making their own things.

00:35Well, I'd say the businesses that tend to thrive

00:38are usually the slightly odd and independent ones.

00:42I mean, we have a cafe that's also a comic book store

00:46and a noughties clothing store.

00:49So, and Dr. Oculus is, you know, there.

00:53The community is such that you get great support

00:56from every other business that's around here.

00:58Like everyone's rooting for everybody else.

01:00If there's anything I can do for somebody else, I will.

01:04And there's other people that have helped me out here.

01:06It's amazing.

01:07It's not just the shops and studios that give the custard factory its character.

01:11It's the people, tattooists next to tech startups,

01:15DJs alongside fashion brands

01:17and a culture that values collaboration over competition.

01:21Rent's cheaper than the city centre.

01:23The walls are covered in graffiti, not corporate logos.

01:26And for many, it's the only place they could afford to start.

01:29This isn't gentrification, it's regeneration,

01:32done with routes still intact.

01:34We don't get any support, no.

01:36We could do some support from councils or government

01:40for kind of start-up plans and things like that.

01:43The support they probably need the most is people knowing we're down here.

01:47Because the walk from the town centre is,

01:51it's not the nicest walk and it's a little long.

01:53So something that would probably help independent businesses

01:56do a lot better than they are, especially around here,

01:58is just greater awareness of the type of people

02:02and the type of businesses that are here.

02:04The vibe here is intentional.

02:06It's built for browsing, brickwork, left to roof,

02:09murals, neon lights, metal sculptures welded from scrap.

02:12It's part street market, part art gallery,

02:15part industrial time capsule.

02:17There's no glossy uniformity, no focus group storefronts.

02:21And because of that, people come here, not just to buy something,

02:24but to feel something.

02:26For many traders, that's the whole point.

02:28Sell something real, stay weird, keep going.

02:31Identity-wise, because Digbeth is probably the oldest part of Birmingham.

02:35So most things started here.

02:36All the old factories and things were steelworks.

02:39This is a custom factory and it used to be the custom factory.

02:42Tyfu works, which is where BBC moved into.

02:45So, yeah, identity-wise and graffiti.

02:48Graffiti brings a lot of tourism here as well,

02:50so it's, you know, especially at the moment

02:52because Black Sabbath are on and everyone's coming to see

02:54Ozzy Osbourne and Peaky Blinders ones around the corner.

02:56So, yeah, it's a good tourist attraction as well.

02:58Yes.

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