The Custard Factory complex is set in fifteen acres (60,000 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 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. There is no positive evidence in Birmingham City Archive. At one time, a thousand people worked there.