Expansion plotted for Barnsley Civic

Plans submitted to add to the arts destination’s offer include a music venue in the under-used ground floor hall, with a café bar and retail fronting Eldon Street.

Bauman Lyons Architects is working with the applicant, Barnsley Civic Enterprise, with a suite of planning documents now validated by Barnsley Council for the refurbishment of the grade two-listed building, which dates from the 1870s.

As set out in the design & access statement, Barnsley Civic is located in the town centre within the Regent Street, Church Street, Market Hill conservation area. It currently serves a mixture of cultural uses including an arts venue, theatre and gallery alongside some private workspace.

The Civic closed in 1998, and was reopened in 2009 after a major refurbishment.

With first Allen Tod Architecture and later Bond Bryan engaged to design reworked spaces at the building, the main hall and former library area beneath were replaced by three concrete floors. A 368-seat hall was inserted at gallery level under the surviving hall ceiling, with the two floors beneath presently used for storage.

An L-shaped extension was built against the north wall of the hall, replacing the 1890 staircase with a narrow foyer range with new fire exits and an escalator serving the top hall.

At the west end a new square extension was added containing an art gallery, offices, workshop and rehearsal spaces, the former stage area of the hall being subsumed into the new extension.

The proposed works, developed with Arts Council backing to the tune of around £800,000, will expand on that reopening.

As things stand

An ornate classical facade facing onto Eldon Street serves as the building’s primary entrance, with a double height entrance hall leading into a main stairwell with a large central hall volume located beyond.

The extensions carried out between 2006 and 2009 wrap the north and west elevations of the hall, these works being delivered alongside “significant alteration works” including the insertion of a steel frame into the central hall volume to create the additional floorplates.

Internally the hall and north extension spaces at ground, first and second floor levels were left in a relatively unfinished state, say Bauman Lyons, and have largely remained out of public use.

Key goals of the project are restoring the grandeur of the main stairwell, and introducing a music venue into the ground floor hall space, with associated ancillaries.

The ground floor spaces fronting Eldon Street were recently refurbished, say Bauman Lyons, and currently serve as flexible spaces supporting the building’s cultural programme – the council occupied these spaces for a time, departing in 2022. The basement spaces beneath the right hand portion of the building upon entry remain empty and unutilised.

The historic main stairwell is currently divided into two spaces by a modern partition whereas it was originally a single grand space. The ground floor hall space and adjacent foyer remain in unfinished states and are largely vacant, aside from hosting occasional temporary events.

The original masonry hall walls remain visible in both spaces, with many openings either infilled or boarded over. The hall is currently entered by a temporary ramp from a corridor off the main stairwell space.

Let the music play

The aspiration is for the current ground floor hall space – once the town’s main public library and reading room – to become a music venue including a pop up bar facility.

According to planning documents, the main space would be around 4,100 sq ft.

A new floor would be installed over the current exposed slab to provide some insulation and to match the adjacent levels to allow step-free access, with entry coming from the foyer space to the north by creating doorways where current openings have been partitioned off.

A sculpted floor plane element including a ramp is proposed in the foyer space to make a feature of navigating a large and step-free level change for visitors arriving from the main stairwell. To “create a more generous entry sequence and transition space,” removal of the ground floor stair and escalator in the foyer space is proposed. The access to Mandela Gardens would be reinforced, while internally the strategy is to enhance historic features, with one aspect being the reinstatement of glazing to the south-facing windows.

A backstage circulation route will enable staff and performer access to back of house areas including the green room which is to be located in a currently underutilised space adjacent to the Hanson Room at first floor level.

The Barnsley Chronicle has reported that the music venue would have a capacity of 600, with Civic chief executive Dan Winder telling the Chronicle that as the building’s 150-year anniversary approaches, the improvements “will help to create a Barnsley Civic fit for the next 150 years”.

Along with Arts Council support, the Civic 150 project has secured support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund ahead of the celebrations in January 2028.

The proposal documents can be viewed on Barnsley Council’s planning portal, using the reference 2026/0612.