The Hippo Club

The Hippo Club was a nightclub in Cardiff, Wales, remembered as one of the city's key dance music venues of the 1990s. It stood in a fairly plain, unassuming building near the back of Cardiff Central railway station on Penarth Road, a location that belied the energy of what went on inside.

From 1993 the club built a reputation as a regular stop for a run of well-known DJs and performers, becoming closely associated with the wider surge of interest in Welsh music and culture during the so-called Cool Cymru period. <cite index="7-10,7-11">From 1993, it regularly played host to a stream of superstar DJs and bands who became part of the so-called Cool Cymru movement, with Boy George, Sister Bliss, Judge Jules and DJ Eric Morales among the big names to play at the venue.</cite> House music superstar Eric Morales in particular retained fond memories of the place long after it closed, reportedly reminiscing about the venue even while playing a beach party on the other side of the world.

Although it never had the glossy, carpeted feel of the bigger out-of-town superclubs that were becoming fashionable elsewhere in the UK during the mid-to-late 1990s, the Hippo Club held its own as part of a small cluster of no-frills, dance-focused venues in the city, alongside places such as the Philharmonic, Clwb Ifor Bach and the Emporium. Its appeal lay in its underground, slightly scruffy character rather than any high-end club experience, and it drew a loyal crowd of Cardiff clubbers who valued substance over style.

The club's run came to an end in January 2000, bringing the curtain down on a venue that had become a genuine fixture of Cardiff nightlife through the preceding decade. The building itself no longer exists in its original form: the site is now occupied by an office development at Callaghan Square, home to corporate tenants rather than a dancefloor. For many who went through its doors in the 1990s, though, the Hippo Club remains a touchstone of that era's Cardiff club scene, remembered through fan reminiscences, old photographs and the occasional nostalgic nod from DJs who played there.