Hire a space at Railway Gardens
A green venue in the heart of the community, perfect for your meeting, gathering, or event.
Looking for a unique Cardiff venue to run a class, host an event, or hold a meeting?
We have unique and comfortable indoor and outdoor spaces to hire
We’re an affordable option, with every penny going back into supporting our work
We offer a well-equipped kitchen, AV, play equipment to hire and more
We’re well located, just 5 minutes drive or twenty minutes walk from Queen Street Station.
We pride ourselves on making sure you have a great hire experience, from your first enquiry to the day of your event.
Read on to find out more about our venue and the different pricing tiers available, including limited discounted and free rates.
Explore our spaces
Railway Gardens is a unique green oasis and the perfect venue for your meeting, event or social gathering. Our site is secure, has wheelchair and pushchair accessible pathing throughout, accessible toilets, baby changing and a strong sustainable ethos.
The Community Room
The Community Room is a unique space created from reused shipping containers. Warm and cheerful, it seats around 25 people theatre style or includes tables if you want to seat people for a meeting, a meal or a workshop. The room has a small but well equipped kitchen, AV set up, and the option to open up a large side door into the gardens so people can move between inside and outside. It’s a perfect space for training, meetings, parties, shared meals, cookery and so much more.
Y Nyth
Y Nyth, or The Nest, is our beautiful wooden outdoor space. It’s covered and enclosed from the elements, fully accessible, and powered by sun and wind! This space seats 16 adults or 30 children comfortably on inbuilt benches, or can be set up with tables and additional chairs for activities. It has a large blackboard, power, and there’s water and washing up nearby. It’s a great space for meetings, performances, projects and social gatherings.
The Green Squirrel Cabin
Need a space to focus or hold a small group meeting or activity? Our light, comfortable and heated shipping container cabin seats 8 around the large table and includes wifi, a tea station, and an inspiring view out onto the gardens!
Y Gardens
Looking for outside space? Our spacious and accessible Gardens are perfect for markets, play, fitness, performance, parties or any open air activity you’re planning. Book the outdoor space on its own (includes outdoor washing up area and accessible toilets) or combine with one of our indoor spaces.
What will it cost?
We want to make Railway Gardens available to everyone to use if they need it – that’s why we offer several different hire rates:
Standard rate
If you pay this rate you’ll be helping Railway Gardens to become sustainable and continue to support the local community. We’ve tried to make this rate affordable to most organisations and waged individuals.
Friends Rate
This reduced rate is available to you if you have a Sunflower Membership under the Friends of Railway Gardens scheme, which costs just £6/ month (or £66 if you pay annually)
Free and discounted rates
We are able to offer a limited amount of free and discounted hires for individuals or volunteer run groups that would like to run an event or activity which benefits the local community. Please get in touch with Becca here if you feel like this might apply to you.
Ready to book? Complete our booking form here and we’ll be in touch to confirm details and availability.
Our hire prices
Weekday daytime hourly hire
| What do you want to hire? | Friends Rate | Standard Rate |
|---|---|---|
|
Y Nyth (outdoor learning space) |
£8 |
£15 |
|
The Community Room |
£15 |
£30 |
|
The Green Squirrel Cabin |
£8 |
£15 |
Evening and weekend hourly hire
| What do you want to hire? | Friends Rate | Standard Rate |
|---|---|---|
|
Y Nyth (outdoor learning space) |
£12 |
£20 |
|
The Community Room |
£20 |
£35 |
|
The Green Squirrel Cabin |
£12 |
£20 |
If you're interested in hiring a space for a full day, you're looking for a regular booking, or you'd like to hire the outdoors space or whole site then please contact Becca on becca@greensquirrel.co.uk or use our contact form.
What do I need to know?
- The site is wheelchair and pushchair accessible with an accessible toilet.
- We have cycle racks and there is ample non-residents parking in local streets.
- We have excellent wifi!
- We have baby changing facilities.
- The Community Room has kitchen facilities available for your use if you are hiring that space. These include induction hob and oven, kettle, microwave, and it is well stocked with mugs, plates, bowls, glasses and utensils.
- You also have the option to hire the Play Shack, an amazing resource packed with den building equipment and loose parts play resources.
- As you may have guessed from our name, we are directly beside the railway! While most visitors do not find the trains intrusive (in fact lots of people love hearing and seeing them!) please bear this in mind when making your booking, and arrange a visit to the site if you’d like to check it out beforehand.
- If you are hiring the venue for a social event then you are allowed to have alcohol at your event as long as you’re not selling it. However if you are planning to sell alcohol then you will need to arrange a Temporary Event Notice to do this – please contact us to discuss this.
- In line with our sustainability policies, and due to our proximity to the rail line, balloons are not allowed on site. We also encourage everyone using Railway Gardens not to use glitter as it gets into our soil.
- If you’re running any activities on site, or bringing in a third party provider to do so, you are responsible for having appropriate Public Liability Insurance and any entertainment licenses needed.
- Unless otherwise arranged, you will be responsible for setting up the space and leaving it tidy and secure at the end of your booking. We will usually be able to offer set up for an additional cost, please get in touch for a chat.
- If you’re looking for activities to accompany your booking, such as craft, cookery, or growing demos, please do let us know.
How do I make a booking?
Please complete our booking enquiry form using the button and we’ll be in touch to confirm availability and send you a booking agreement.