Grangetown is a creative, diverse, and vibrant place to live and work and here at Grange Pavilion the community celebrates that and more in this accessible and inclusive space welcoming daily visitors and hosting hundreds of clubs and activities across the year.
This beautiful artwork by Jack Skivens wanted to tell the story of Grange Pavilion through the eyes of those who were there from the beginning. His research and interviews helped him capture the project, the people, and the journey to the Pavilion’s launch.
Grangetown is one of Cardiff’s largest, most diverse wards, and at the heart of this community sits Grange Pavilion.
Located in a popular inner-city park, Grange Pavilion is a thriving and ‘fiercely loved’ venue run by and for the community. The Grange Pavilion is a warm, welcoming space for community activities, events and services. It provides an inclusive space for learning, being active, creative and connecting. We have been described as ‘remarkable’ and ‘radical’ (local resident 2024) exemplars of what can be achieved when community voices and knowledge are prioritised.
Home to the Hideout, an award-winning café and Grange Pavilion Youth Forum, we have a beautiful, biodiverse outdoor space with a community garden, a safe play area, and places to sit and relax outside.
We opened our doors in October 2020 and in our short time in operation we have already had a significant positive impact on the Grangetown community. Along with our core partners at Community Gateway (Cardiff University) and Grange Pavilion Youth forum we have won fifteen national and international awards and generated an estimated £25 million is social value. Our awards include Royal Society of Architects in Wales (RSAW)’ ‘RSAW Welsh Architecture Award’ and ‘RSAW Client of the Year’ (2022), Constructing Excellence in Wales ‘Value’ Award (2022) and Cardiff property Awards ‘Civic Development’ award (2021) for the design and architecture of the building and for our innovative and collaborative approach to building a community centre with, by and for its community.
RSAW celebrated the Grange Pavilion’s design and values in its ‘Revealing Wales’ film series, viewing link here.
Films celebrating the physical and online (during lockdown) launch of the Grange Pavilion can be viewed at Grange Pavilion Official Launch – May 2022 – YouTube and Celebrating the online launch of Grange Pavilion.
Articles describing the Grange Pavilion can be viewed at the links below: ݻThe thriving hub in the middle of Grangetown that’s become the heart of the community ݻGrangetown comes together to celebrate official launch of Grange Pavilion
The result of local ambition
Our story started over 10 years ago when residents developed a shared vision for a space where all members of their community could come together. The once-deteriorating bowls pavilion – now this stunning Grange Pavilion – became the focus of our ambition. A specially formed residents’ group – the Grange Pavilion Project – forged a partnership with the voluntary group, Grangetown Community Action, Cardiff University’s Community Gateway Project and Cardiff Council. The partnership group worked together to raise £1.8m to redevelop a previously-vacant bowls pavilion into the beautiful community facility you see today. It was designed to create affordable space-for-hire, a community-focused café offering training to young people, outdoor gardening and more…
Within just a couple of years the old pavilion was being used by by thousands of residents and scores of stakeholders and had launched 150 community-led initiatives in response to local ideas, and the ideas have kept coming. And the spaces are well used throughout the week and across the year. Here in the Pavilion you’ll find everything from a gardening club to our Youth Forum, sewing groups to Bollywood fitness sessions, book clubs to English classes. The list is extensive and you can find out more here.
Resident-led Team and Management
Our resident-led Board was established to help raise the initial funds and to develop our stunning building, and their commitment to the project continues today. The current Co-chairs of the Board are local residents Abdi Yusuf and Beth Gaffey.
The Grange Pavilion now has charity status and 75 per cent of its team are Grangetown residents.