Music Venue Clwb Ifor Bach Cardiff, Welsh Rock Club architecture project, building planning permission news
Music Venue Clwb Ifor Bach in Cardiff
New Rock Club Development in Wales, UK, design by Nissen Richards Studio Architects
22 May 2026
Nissen Richards Studio scheme to expand legendary Welsh music venue ‘Clwb Ifor Bach’ gets planning go-ahead
Architect: Nissen Richards Studio
Location: Womanby Street, Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom
Ambitious plans to expand and refurbish legendary Cardiff grassroots music venue Clwb Ifor Bach, designed by architects Nissen Richards Studio, have been granted planning permission by Cardiff Council almost three years after the initial submission went in. The new vision for the venue, sited in a historic city centre Conservation Area, has been subject to complex legal agreements and was also the focus of a major funding drive by the club’s owners, with the venue first becoming a Registered Charity in 2019 to help further its ambitions not only to host the best in new music but to support the development of the club’s local audience, artists, skills and community.
Clwb Ifor Bach’s importance in the Welsh music scene can’t be overstated, having helped launch the careers of many big-name Welsh bands, from Stereophonics to Super Furry Animals. The new designs by Nissen Richards Studio seek above all to retain Clwb Ifor Bach’s character, charm and heritage, whilst modernising and future-proofing it for generations to come, to ensure it is a fully-accessible venue, welcoming to all.
The revamped 1,270m² venue will also include improved facilities such as green rooms, increased toilet capacity, new bars, offices and workshops, plus increased capacity to allow for higher-profile acts. Committed to improving opportunities for younger audiences, Clwb Ifor Bach supports aspiring technicians, promoters, performers, photographers, and more. The work now goes beyond music event programming and the redevelopment will help take this to a bigger scale.
The New Proposal
Nissen Richards Studio’s scheme proposes the removal of the site’s existing first floor and the creation of a double-height performance space, comprised of a standing area/dance floor that accommodates 375 people, plus a wrap-around mezzanine balcony, creating a total capacity of 500. The scheme will also enable two venues to operate simultaneously, with an additional 200-capacity space on the upper floor that allows for intimate live music shows, events, exhibitions and conferences, with the overall venue capable of holding up to 750 people across four floors.
“The old and new building exteriors will have different treatments to create a sense of ‘honest drama’” Jim Richards, Director of Nissen Richards Studio explained. “The existing building will feature a textured charcoal black render, whilst the new building will feature new, fired brickwork. The new building will have a faceted front, with a thin LED strip demarcating the two buildings to create an ‘active’ frontage. Patinated, galvanised steel cladding will reach the top of the ground floor across both the old and new buildings, unifying the two.”
The architectural treatment refers to the local city architectural vernacular, from Cardiff Castle and the semi-glazed bricks of the Victorian terraces to the local Art Deco cinema’s render. The new building’s faceted front features a slightly abstracted look facing in the direction of the castle, with its verticality more pronounced from the other direction. The verticality reflects the Art Deco influences, but with a more industrial feel that’s right for the venue.
“We are implementing a ‘fabric first’ approach to this project, with intelligent systems, including dramatically improved thermal and acoustic performance and MVHR recovery systems” Jim Richards added. “In terms of look and feel, whilst refurbishments often try to maintain a building’s exterior whilst blitzing the interior, the inverse needed to happen here. The interior will stay raw and true with a brick, rustic feel to ensure it feels like a proper gig venue with character and soul.”
On the building’s first floor, there will also be a new cloakroom and an education room, created for use by local schools as a practice room. This space features two major glazed walls, ensuring it links to the local streetscape below. The space represents part of the venue’s commitment to having more varied activities going on at different times of the day and night.
The upper floor will be significantly upgraded with a new bar and better acoustics in the form of acoustic window shutters, as well as better toilets, band rooms and offices. The proposed roof terrace plan includes a covered bar space overlooking the castle from the windows, as well as a retractable roof terrace canopy and smoking area.
At the front, there will be a main and a secondary entrance, which also serves as a fire escape. A backlit AV screen will be located where the main entrance used to be. The venue’s new identity, designed by Nissen Richards Studio, features twice on the new exterior, recessed into the exterior wall of the reclad existing building. It will face in two directions, each with a different treatment, referring to the two different exterior treatments. The front-facing identity will be in frosted, backlit glass, whilst the side-facing one will be in patinated steel. The logo ‘marque’, which features on the new building fascia, will also be in patinated steel.
Clwb Ifor Bach Chief Executive Guto Brychan said: “We’d like to extend our gratitude to Cardiff Council for their help in securing the premises next door, which was a key factor in progressing the plans. Our plans to improve Clwb Ifor Bach for the artists and audiences of the future will be a cornerstone of the city’s live music infrastructure for years to come.
The venue won’t just build on our heritage, it will contribute to our community, to the Welsh economy and to the fabric of Welsh life. And it will play a critical role in making Cardiff an internationally recognised music city, the capital of a country that’s synonymous with song. It’s time to give music in Wales a new home.”
Visuals copyright Nissen Richards Studio
Clwb Ifor Bach
Since opening in 1983, the iconic music venue has helped Welsh artists like Stereophonics, Boy Azooga, Gwenno, Super Furry Animals and plenty more during the early stages of their careers. It has provided opportunities for thousands of upcoming artists to develop their craft in front of smaller audiences – with even global artists like Coldplay taking to the stage.
Pre-pandemic figures taken from UK Music estimate that live music brought 440,000 visitors to Wales in 2019, spending £143 million and directly supporting 1,843 jobs. Clwb Ifor Bach wants to continue attracting more artists and audiences from across Cardiff and beyond, to help boost the Welsh creative economy. The redevelopment also supports the vision of Cardiff Council’s ongoing strategy to place music at the heart of the city’s future as the UK’s first ‘Music City’.
Nissen Richards Studio
Nissen Richards Studio is a triple RIBA National Award-winning architects’ practice and exhibition design studio, working globally across civic and cultural architecture, heritage and new-build housing and museum masterplanning, exhibition, interpretation and graphic design.
Founded in 2010 and led by Directors Pippa Nissen and Jim Richards, Nissen Richards Studio’s work includes a new-build viewing tower at Anglo-Saxon royal burial site Sutton Hoo, winner of an RIBA National Award, whilst in 2023, Nissen Richards Studio was part of the team that won an RIBA National Award for the transformation of The Courtauld Gallery, with the scheme going on to be shortlisted for The Stirling Prize and winning the RIBA People’s Poll Award.
In 2024, the National Portrait Gallery refurbishment, for which Nissen Richards Studio were Interpretation and Permanent Exhibition Designers, won an RIBA National Award and was also shortlisted for The Stirling Prize. Most recently, Nissen Richards Studio worked on the transformation of John Rylands Library in Manchester and the new Shoemakers Museum in Street, Somerset. The practice is also part of the newly-announced winning team for The Museum of Jesus’ Baptism at Bethany, Jordan.
www.nissenrichardsstudio.com
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Previously on e-architect:
5 Feb 2019
Cult Music Venue Clwb Ifor Bach in Cardiff
Architects: Nissen Richards Studio
Location: Womanby Street, Cardiff, Wales, UK
Nissen Richards Studio reveals plans for the reimagination of iconic cult music venue Clwb Ifor Bach
Multidisciplinary architecture and design practice Nissen Richards Studio has revealed its plans for the redevelopment of Clwb Ifor Bach, an iconic music venue in the heart of Cardiff.
Images © Nissen Richards Studio
The plans were revealed to the public on the evening of Monday 4th February at an open consultation at Clwb Ifor Bach. The public were invited to view the proposals and give feedback via an online survey available on Clwb’s website.
The scheme will see Nissen Richards studio take on their third live music venue to-date; having previously redeveloped the now critically acclaimed venue, Printworks London, and the soon-to-be constructed Magazine in Greenwich Peninsula, which will be opening in the summer.
Sitting within the St Mary Street Conservation Area, the redevelopment of Clwb Ifor Bach is a community led enterprise. Having opened its doors in 1983 as a Welsh language working men’s club, over its 35 year life-span it has transformed into a live music institution. It has since became ingrained within the narrative of the city as a bastion of Welsh culture and a rite of passage for music goers and musicians alike.
Nissen Richards Studio has worked closely with a broad consultant team, staff and stakeholders to create a new space for Clwb that will turn Womanby Street and the surrounding urban landscape into a destination. The new 1270 sqm venue will be created through the redevelopment of the adjacent derelict property, and the reconfiguration of the existing building, resulting in a new 500 capacity double height space on the lower floor, and an additional 300 capacity space on the upper floor.
The new design will enable both spaces to be operated simultaneously, offering Cardiff’s live music scene a venue suitable for both early-career bands and big-name favourites.
The upgrades to the existing Clwb venue will include improved facilities such as green rooms, increased toilet capacity, new bars, offices and workshops, and an increased capacity to allow for higher profile acts. In removing the first floor, Nissen Richards Studio has created a double height performance space, creating a standing area to accommodate 375 people and a wrap-around mezzanine balcony that can stand a further 125.
Allowing for performances on a larger scale, the design will see the raw interior radically opened up with exposed masonry, steelwork and concrete creating an industrial aesthetic. The upper second floor space will also have capacity for 300, allowing for a more intimate timberlined musical setting that can be used both for live music shows, events, exhibitions and conferences.
This reinvented space will help Clwb Ifor Bach to reach new audiences whilst maintaining the intimacy that has made Clwb such an iconic destination. As independent music venues find themselves facing economic hardship and are increasingly being shut down, Nissen Richards Studio is using its integrated architecture and design expertise to create dynamic spaces that are accessible, flexible, and experimental whilst also leading the way in contemporary venue design.
Jim Richards, Director of Nissen Richards Studio says: We are truly excited to be working with Clwb Ifor Bach. Not only does the project utilise our skills in creating raw immersive spaces, but it also provides an opportunity for us to build upon the legacy of this iconic venue, and allow future generations to enjoy the experience of live music.”
Guto Brychan, Clwb Ifor Bach Chief Executive says: “It’s been incredibly sad to see the closures of much-loved, independent venues in Cardiff and surrounding areas. Their closure which has rocked grassroots music in the city has made it all the more important that we try and secure our future and the future of grassroots music in Wales. Having a larger venue also ensures that Clwb will be able to develop its role as a sector leader in Wales through the development of grassroots talent, skills development and community engagement.”
Address: 11 Womanby St, Cardiff CF10 1BR, UK
Phone: +44 29 2023 2199
About Nissen Richards Studio
Nissen Richards Studio was established in 2010. We are a London-based design studio that evolved from a collaboration between architecture and theatre design. Today, we are a multidisciplinary practice that works across architecture, exhibitions, graphic design, theatre, story-telling, film and animation. At its core, our work is about creating spaces that stimulate experiences.
Having a broad range of skills and expertise gives us the flexibility to work across varied projects, from small scale experimental theatre designs, exhibitions and architecture commissions, to large scale residential, commercial and cultural buildings.
As a practice, we are thoughtful and imaginative, and take great pride in our work being of the highest quality. Collaboration, listening and dialogue are central to our working methodology, and as a curator of multiple creative fields, we are able to offer new design perspectives.
Throughout all our work, we create clear systems of thinking, working and communicating, systems that are fully integrated in the overall design process. We have a thirst for excellence and a curiosity of the world that translates to beautifully crafted spaces for people to experience, feel and enjoy.
www.nissenrichardsstudio.com (at)NISSENRICHARDS
To see Clwb’s proposals visit https://clwb.net/public-consultation/
Music Venue Clwb Ifor Bach in Cardiff images / information received 050219
Location: 11 Womanby Street, Music Venue Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff, CF10 1BR, Wales, UK
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Website: Clwb Ifor Bach in Cardiff
