Best/Worst Theatres - By Guest Facilities

I’d also add that my recent visit to the Bridge was great. I really enjoyed the big open foyer rather than several cramped bars. It’s easy to find your way around and has lovely toilets. There’s also the added bonus (which the National also has) of water fountains before you enter the theatre.

I forgot to add in my original post but another vote for the NT and Bridge. Both have lots of space, lots of loos and those water fountains (also useful for those trying to be environmentally conscious and use re-useable water bottles).

Also the NT deserves special mention for the best coffee of any theatre I've been to and some of the best anywhere. I don't know what they put in it but it has actual healing qualities.

I mentioned the Churchill, only because to access the stalls, you have to navigate 100 steps. if you have a disability this is far from ideal.

I mentioned the Almeida on  my original post as poor, because the lobby is extremely cramped and to get from the lobby to the circle, this can only be done, via the outside. I do realise the was built as a Victorian Music Hall, so therefore facilities 150 wasn't as important.

The queue for the ladies in the Old Vic goes all the way up the stairs, so I am pretty confident that for a lot of females, do not complete their mission and have to cross their legs for act 2. Incidentally you can walk across to the Young Vic and use their facilities and they cannot refuse as it is a public building, as it receives Art council funding, however if you're seeing something in the Young Vic, you cannot go across to the Old Vic, as this doesn't receive funding!!! This is still not the perfect solution though.

Love Trafalgar Studios for its bar, friendly staff, comfy seats (I know, I know, they only fit oompa loompas, but even us oompas like to rest our feet on the floor occasionally!) Add me to the Palladium list too - always love visiting.

Chocolate Factory. Just ugh. Dark, rickety stairs, crowded bar, having to share my bum space with strangers (move up or buy 2 seats, d'you hear?) and don't even start me on those toilets. 

I thought this thread would mostly be about the quality of toilets.

Every time I find myself having to balance on one leg and go through contortions to close a cubicle door it makes me wonder how some designs were ever signed off as satisfactory. When it comes to determining the required feature set it's not as if "people who use toilets" is an especially difficult demographic to find.

Talking toilets, some of my least-favourite venues are either pub theatres, in which case it's beyond the control of the producer/director (the Old Red Lion is dire) or actual theatres but which seem to aim at a clubbing audience, e.g. Soho Theatre, where the toilets are cramped and disgusting. However, even otherwise decent theatres may have toilets which require the would-be user to be an acrobat or contortionist: Donmar Warehouse, consider yourself named and shamed.

That would probably be top of my list of least favourite West End theatres, and I'm having to put up with it an awful lot at the moment! I can't decide if I dislike the lobby or the loos the most.

The Bush is rather nice - lots of cafe space especially in Summer when you can sit outside

The Tristan Bates has enough loos and a cheap bar

The Union has a nice cafe and friendly staff and they've pioneered the unisex loo

Donmar has always been a nightmare for women of average size and above.
Of course this thread was always gonna be about the toilets. And for one I’m delighted. I’ve been going on about them since the beginning of time.

I don’t usually bother with bars. I take a bottle of water. Drink in private. But I have noticed that the NT is a less pleasant place to sit before a performance these days. As I’ve said before the Dorfman lobby is like a funeral parlour and the Olivier/Lyttleton is messy and hasn’t enough places to sit drink or no drink. Such a waste of the brilliant location.

I was v impressed with the Bridge foyer. Almost enough chairs and a long bar. And as has been discussed adequate loos.

The ladies toilets in the refurbished Victoria Palace are very nice but a nightmare to get to - if you're on the right side of the stalls to make a dash for it you'll be fine, but if you're slower the queue goes up two different sets of stairs!

And it will only get worse once people know where they are rather than having to ask for directions in that rabbit warren of a theatre!

You've probably seen it in the Full Monty, one of the most successful British films of all time.  It was set firmly in the North, where everyone, male and female, is terribly uncouth. 

I believe some do, in well-to-do areas like Nether Edge. One day, I hope to replace my bucket with a tin bath!