Digbeth Institute
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The Digbeth Institute (currently known for sponsorship reasons as the O2 Institute) is a music venue located in
Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...
,
England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
. The venue opened in 1908 as a mission of Carrs Lane Congregational Church. It has also served as an event centre, civic building and nightclub. It has three main rooms: the 1,500-capacity main auditorium called O2 Institute1 (formerly "The Institute") which has two seated upper balcony levels, the downstairs room which holds up to 500 people called O2 Institute2 (formerly "The Library") and the 250-capacity upstairs room O2 Institute3 (formerly "The Temple"). The venue also used to house "Un-Plug", an intimate club with a capacity of 400, located in the building's cellar. The space formerly operated as the "Midland Jazz Club", "Jug 'O Punch Folk Club", Dance Factory and "Barfly".


History

Designed by Arthur Harrison, it was officially opened 16 January 1908 by the wife of the Pastor of Carrs Lane Church, John Henry Jowett, as an institutional church associated with Carr's Lane Congregational Church. In the week that followed, it hosted a variety of acts. The area which surrounded it was predominantly
slum A slum is a highly populated Urban area, urban residential area consisting of densely packed housing units of weak build quality and often associated with poverty. The infrastructure in slums is often deteriorated or incomplete, and they are p ...
s and industrial buildings. In 1954, the building was put up for sale by the trustees as they felt the building was not needed for its originally intended use. It was bought by Birmingham City Council in 1955 for £65,000 and was used as a civic hall. People known to have made speeches at the Digbeth Institute include
Neville Chamberlain Arthur Neville Chamberlain (; 18 March 18699 November 1940) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from ...
, Henry Usborne, Florence L. Barclay and Herbert Hensley Henson. The Church relocated to Yardley as Digbeth-in-the-Field Congregational Church. In the late 1950s and early 1960s it housed the Midland Jazz club. Wrestling was held at the venue when it was known as Digbeth Civic Hall. Digbeth Civic Hall hosted the likes of
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (, ; born Pervez Fateh Ali Khan; 13 October 1948 – 16 August 1997), also known by his initials NFAK, was a Pakistani singer, songwriter, and music director. Khan was primarily a singer of qawwali, a form of Sufi devot ...
(1983). In 1987, the building was used as a film studio by the Birmingham Film and Video Workshop for the
Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...
film 'Out of Order'. The venue also played a part as one of the main locations in the feature film 'Lycanthropy', filmed in 2005–06. In the 1985 and 1997, the venue was refurbished. In 1998, "The Sanctuary" opened, which was to be the original home of the Cambridge/Northampton born club night event
Godskitchen Godskitchen is an international superclub brand which is associated with dance music and organises events, particularly in the UK and US. The company used to run a club night of the same name at their nightclub AIR (nightclub), AIR, in Birmingham ...
. It also played host to other events such as: Atomic Jam, Uproar, Slinky, Sundissential, Athletico, Ramshackle, Insurrection, Inukshuk and Panic. In 2005, Channelfly Company bought the downstairs "cellar" room, and turned it into the Birmingham Barfly. This 400 capacity venue was host to touring bands and local bands. The MAMA Group acquired Channelfly as a subsidiary in 2006. In 2008, the MAMA Group took over the lease of the whole building. Work was started on renovating the building, especially the historic features. The work was due to be finished in September 2009 (but was not completed until March 2010). In January 2009, HMV bought a 9.9% stake in The MAMA Group (by taking 50% of the Mean Fiddler). In January 2010 HMV bought the remaining percentage of the MAMA group for £46 million. After a £4 million refurbishment, the HMV Institute opened on 18 September 2010. In December 2012, HMV sold its assets to Lloyds Development Capital (LDC) for under £8 million. In 2015, the venue was acquired by
Live Nation Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. is an American multinational Entertainment industry, entertainment company that was founded in 2010 following the Mergers and acquisitions, merger of Live Nation (events promoter), Live Nation and Ticketmaster. It ...
, and re-branded as O2 Institute Birmingham, as part of the O2 Academy Group.


Naming history

*Digbeth Institute *Digbeth Civic Hall *The Institute *Sanctuary Nightclub *HMV Institute *O2 Institute


Exterior

The exterior is a mixture of red brick and grey
terracotta Terracotta, also known as terra cotta or terra-cotta (; ; ), is a clay-based non-vitreous ceramic OED, "Terracotta""Terracotta" MFA Boston, "Cameo" database fired at relatively low temperatures. It is therefore a term used for earthenware obj ...
. The grey terracotta forms the more ornate features of the façade including the three towers, the 1.65-metre tall allegorical figures and the window and door frames. The six allegorical figures are believed to be the work of John Evans, the chief modeller for Gibbs & Canning. Two hold open books and two have musical instruments (a third's instrument is lost). The final figure holds a purse, representing public charity. The drawings of the building by Arthur Harrison do not include the figures, indicating that these were probably added in 1909. The building is Grade B locally listed.Birmingham City Council - List of Locally Listed Buildings
Birmingham.gov.uk


References


External links


Birmingham City Council: 1908 photograph and information
{{BirminghamBuildings Nightclubs in Birmingham, West Midlands Music venues in Birmingham, West Midlands Buildings and structures completed in 1908 1908 establishments in England