The Menier Chocolate Factory is a 180 seat off-West End theatre, which comprises a restaurant, bar and rehearsal rooms.
It is located in a former 1870s Menier Chocolate Company factory in Southwark Street, a major street in the London Borough of Southwark, central south London, England, some 2.5 km from the theatrical West End. The theatre stages plays and musicals, live music and stand-up comedy. According to the Evening Standard, it is "one of the most dynamic fringe venues in London".
The French company Menier Chocolate Company expanded overseas and built a five-storey factory and warehouse of brick with stone dressings in London between 1865 and 1874. It was listed Grade II in 1996.
The Menier Chocolate Factory was opened in 2004 in its current incarnation, the building having been derelict since the 1980s. It is run by artistic director David Babani. In 2005, the theatre received the Peter Brook/Empty Space Up and Coming Venue Award. In the same year, he and co-founder Danielle Tarento jointly won the Evening Standard Milton Shulman Award for Outstanding Newcomer. Tarento left in 2006 to pursue a solo producing career, and was replaced by General Manager Thomas Siracusa.
Chocolate Factory is the fifth studio album by American R&B recording artist R. Kelly, released on February 17, 2003, by Jive Records. Recording sessions for the album took place mainly at Rockland Studios and Chicago Recording Company in Chicago. It was primarily written, arranged, and produced by R. Kelly. Chocolate Factory was conceived by Kelly amid controversy over his sex scandal at the time.
The album debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart, selling over 532,000 copies in its first week. It achieved success in international markets and produced three singles that attained chart success, including US and UK hits "Snake" and "Step in the Name of Love", and international hit "Ignition (Remix)". Chocolate Factory was well received by most music critics, receiving rave reviews from publications such as The New York Times and USA Today. The album has sold over three million copies worldwide and received sales certifications in the United States and the United Kingdom.
The Menier Chocolate company (French: Chocolat Menier) was a chocolate manufacturing business founded in 1816 as a pharmaceutical manufacturer in Paris, France, at a time when chocolate was used as a medicinal product and was only one part of the overall business.
Controlled and run by the Menier family for more than 150 years, the heads of Menier Chocolate company were:
In 1816, Antoine Brutus Menier founded the Menier Hardware Company in Paris. Although not trained as a pharmacist, he began preparing and selling a variety of powders for medicinal purposes. The business grew rapidly but for the first few years the company's production of chocolate was very limited, as its primary usage was as a medicinal powder and for coating bitter-tasting pills.
There's no earthly way of knowing
Which direction we are going
There's no knowing where we're going
Or which way the wind is blowing
Is it raining? Is it snowing?
Is a hurricane a-blowing?
Not a speck of light is showing
So the danger must be growing
Oh, the fires of hell are glowing
Is the grisly reaper mowing?
Yes! The danger must be growing (Faster! Faster!)
For the rowers keep in rowing (Faster! Faster!)
And they're certainly not showing (Faster! Faster!)
Any signs that they are slowing (Faster! Faster!)