Nochtspeicher

Nochtspeicher is a 300-capacity music venue in Hamburg’s St. Pauli, housed in a restored, roughly 160-year-old brick storehouse. Its defining feature is the pairing of a 185-square-metre ground-floor hall with Nochtwache, a second room in the vault below. That two-level setup gives a compact club bill a useful change of scene: a live set upstairs, followed by a dance floor or smaller performance downstairs.

A storehouse given a new purpose

The cultural venue opened in early September 2013 after extensive renovation. The building had previously served as spirits storage, Harry’s Harbourbazar and the Erotic Art Museum; the redevelopment turned it into cultural space alongside five apartments. The Lawaetz Foundation developed the concept and secured planning approval, while Neustadtarchitekten handled the execution planning and construction work. The rebuilt structure retained its red brick and exposed timber character while gaining new foundations, repaired masonry and a lowered cellar floor.

Its opening month supplied the clearest early snapshot of the house’s intent: readings, concerts and dance events arrived almost daily. During the 2013 Reeperbahn Festival, photographer Stefan Malzkorn showed his Rock’n’Roll images on the ground floor while sound artist Lasse-Marc Riek presented work in the vaulted level. The pairing made the venue’s split personality immediate—gallery and gathering place above, subterranean sound room below.

Two rooms, a broad book

Expect a multi-format programmer. The German Music Information Centre describes roughly 250 concerts a year, with country, folk and pop at the centre alongside readings and poetry slams; Hamburg Tourism also identifies bills by established artists and newcomers across singer-songwriter, indie, folk, pop, rock, blues, country, soul and swing. The ground-floor hall is the primary concert room. Downstairs, Nochtwache offers a vaulted cellar, lounge corner, dance floor, full concert setup and a bar built from a former shipping container—physical details that suit late sets and DJ-led after-hours sessions.