Ranked: London’s 11 most beautiful theatres

Hackney

Among the ordinary shops of Mare Street sprouts this eccentrically beautiful red-brick sandcastle of a theatre, its bulbous towers decked with triumphant flaming torches. Fun as the exterior is, the real aesthetic extravagance is found inside, where legendary Victorian theatre designer Frank Matcham indulged his wildest fantasies, from Eastern-inspired domes to dazzlingly intricate gilt lattices. Built in 1901, the theatre's blood-red colour scheme and the impish mask that looms over the stage gives it a gothic feel, transporting you to a stranger, older London where working-class Londoners escaped their struggles in surroundings of plushy splendour.

Regent’s Park

‘I think that I shall never see / A poem lovely as a tree,’ wrote poet Joyce Kilmer. I dare say a number of theatre directors have felt something similar when they’ve glimpsed at the leafy backdrop of silver birches behind the stage at this outdoor venue and wondered if they even need a set designer. The setting sun gives a beautiful structure to evenings here, twilight giving way to welcoming, glimmering darkness as the play reaches its end. Beautiful, though chilly: bring a blanket and your least hideous raincoat to make sure the wonder isn’t tarnished by hypothermia (this is London, remember).

The Strand

Unusually, this theatre is hidden within luxury hotel The Savoy, meaning that you get to walk past a queue of chauffeured Bentleys and an illuminated fountain before you reach its gleaming art deco confines. These 1929 interiors are the handiwork of wonderfully-named architect Basil Ionides. He claimed he was inspired by the zinnias in Hyde Park, and the surfaces really do bloom with a rare exoticism. Stylised flowers grow on specially-designed wallpapers, embossed silver walls shimmer invitingly, and even the seats are upholstered in richly patterned velvets in scarlet, ochre and mustard. 

Bankside

Shakespeare’s Globe has only been on London’s Bankside since 1997, built as part of a bold project to reconstruct the Elizabethan theatre where the bard’s plays were first staged. But it feels so much older, thanks to the centuries-old techniques used to thatch its roof, carve its columns and paint the ornate balconies of this huge outdoor space. Step into the indoor Sam Wanamaker Playhouse upstairs and the historic atmosphere thickens to a welcoming fug, thanks to the honey-scented Yorkshire beeswax candles that entirely light this space. Its gilded wooden panels glimmer in the half-light, while naively-painted clouds and angels beam down from the ceiling, lending a touch of magic to an evening in this tiny theatre.

Shadwell

You don’t have to see a show to soak up the crumbling magic of this Victorian spot. In 1859, entrepreneur John Wilton cobbled together a former tavern and its neighbouring houses to conjure up a boozy palace of entertainment for working class East Enders. Instead of restoring it to English Heritage levels of polish, its current owners have kept things delightfully rugged, preserving its peeling layers of paint and crumbling old brick walls. Its auditorium is a masterclass in faded grandeur, its Mahogany Bar makes a majestic spot for a pint and the creaky-floored drinking dens upstairs will make you feel like you’re an old-timey sailor laying down your last penny on grog.

Covent Garden

Behold, the glittering grand dame of West End theatres: a Regency palace, built on a historic site where flirtatious orange seller Nell Gwynn wooed King Charles II and legendarily grumpy diarist Samuel Pepys saw shows that only mildly displeased him. Its vast 2000-seat auditorium is supplemented by an abundance of spaces to mingle like the classy broad you are, including the glamorous Rotunda champagne bar, and a terrace where you can sip afternoon tea while scorning the peasants below. Unlike her younger neighbours, Theatre Royal Drury Lane is also capacious enough that you’ll never be half-crushed on your way to the bar or spend the whole interval queuing for the loo.

Notting Hill

Step through the doors of the Coronet and you can instantly tell that restoring this building has been a labour of love for artistic director Anda Winters, who turned this former cinema back into the theatre it was originally designed to be. Its intimate, welcoming Victorian auditorium is surrounded by winding, antique-covered corridors and a wildly eccentric bar, its floor patchworked with old Turkish rugs, its walls glistening with mirrors and its sloping floors occupied by a wide variety of lavish and uncomfortable 19th century seating options (no wonder the Victorians did so much for us – relaxing on the sofa simply wasn’t an option). You’ll feel like you’re visiting the wealthy aristocratic auntie that fate didn’t see fit to grant you.

Waterloo

This quaintly grand theatre stands proudly on the corner of The Cut, its Regency facade gleaming invitingly at dusk. It has had a pivotal role in other, more sizeable London arts institutions: it’s where legendary actor Laurence Olivier presided over the repertory company that went on to become the National Theatre, and where former manager Lilian Baylis brewed plans to restore Sadler’s Wells. But this building is well worth admiring in its own right, for what the Theatres Trust has called ‘an auditorium of lyric beauty’. This 1871 design boasts welcoming, ruby-red horseshoe-shaped balconies hung with whimsical tassels and soft lighting supplied by a glowing ceiling rose. In the foyer, a tattered red curtain made from old velvet theatre seats is a memento of the illustrious posteriors that have sat here in years gone by.

Barbican 

As with the even more controversial National Theatre, not everyone will agree this brutalist masterpiece is beautiful. But it was definitely intended to be so. Its architects Chamberlin, Powell & Bon wanted to bring the dignity of Roman London and the grace of Venice to a bomb-scarred corner of the city, so they created a labyrinthine fortress of flats, water gardens, and concrete high walks surrounding a cavernous arts centre. The beauty of Barbican Theatre lies not in its ornamentation but in its carefully-judged balance of austerity and luxury, its clean lines accented in gleaming brass. Each row of the vast auditorium has its own door, and the sight of them softly closing in unison is as awe-inspiring as any elaborate Victorian fantasia.

Battersea

Even a devastating 2015 fire couldn’t taint the magic of this vast late Victorian complex, which is an island of wonder on a quiet stretch of Lavender Hill. Originally, it was designed as a town hall, giving it a distinctive, spacious grandeur. Once, staid dignitaries held their meetings here. Now, an experimental, international crew of artists maraud through its corridors and find new uses for its many spaces, including its barrel vaulted Great Hall, its airy Council Chamber and its intricately-decorated foyer with quaint bee mosaics underfoot.

Covent Garden

This handsome little theatre is known for one thing and one thing only: since 1974, it’s hosted Agatha Christie murder mystery The Mousetrap, in the longest continuous run of any show in the world. But it deserves to get a little credit for its looks, too. Its 1916 interior shunned the gilded flourishes of previous decades in favour of a handsome, Georgian-inspired walnut wood panelling, making it feel like you’re in the gentlemen’s smoking room of some grand English country house. Overhead, an intricate glass dome lets light filter in, making its red velvet curtains glow like spilt blood – the kind that Christie loved to write hit plays about.