How to Get to the Lyric Theatre

29 Shaftesbury Avenue, London W1D 7ES. The theatre is on Shaftesbury Avenue towards the Piccadilly Circus end, next door to the Apollo Theatre.

Google Maps · Directions · Apple Maps

By tube

• Piccadilly Circus (Bakerloo and Piccadilly lines), 2 to 4 minutes. The closest. Take the Shaftesbury Avenue exit and walk up Shaftesbury Avenue for about two minutes, and the theatre is on the left
• Leicester Square (Northern and Piccadilly lines), 5 to 6 minutes. The better choice if you're on the Northern line
• Tottenham Court Road (Central, Northern and Elizabeth lines), about 10 minutes along Shaftesbury Avenue. The one to use off the Elizabeth line

By train

Charing Cross is the nearest mainline station, 10 to 15 minutes on foot. From Waterloo, Victoria, Euston or King's Cross St Pancras, change onto the tube for Piccadilly Circus or Leicester Square.

By bus

Three sets of stops are close. On Shaftesbury Avenue itself, Trocadero / Haymarket (Stop K) is right outside, and Stop H, for the other direction, is a minute away. On Haymarket (Stops P and R) and on Regent Street / St James's (Stops Y and Z), you're 2 to 4 minutes' walk away. On Charing Cross Road, at Leicester Square station (Stops J and L), it's 4 to 5 minutes. Which bus to take depends on where you're coming from:

• From North London: the 19 (Finsbury Park, Highbury, Islington and Angel) stops on Shaftesbury Avenue. The 24 (Hampstead, Camden Town and Warren Street) and the 29 (Wood Green, Finsbury Park and Camden Town) stop on Charing Cross Road. The 88 (Kentish Town, Camden Town and Oxford Circus), the 139 (Golders Green, West Hampstead, St John's Wood and Baker Street) and the 453 (Marylebone and Great Portland Street) stop on Haymarket and Regent Street
• From West London: the 14 (Putney, Fulham, Chelsea, South Kensington and Knightsbridge) stops on Shaftesbury Avenue. The 9 (Hammersmith, High Street Kensington and Knightsbridge), the 23 (Ladbroke Grove, Paddington and Marble Arch) and the 94 (Shepherd's Bush, Notting Hill Gate and Marble Arch) stop on Haymarket and Regent Street
• From South London: the 12 (Dulwich, Peckham, Camberwell and Elephant & Castle), the 88 (Clapham, Stockwell and Vauxhall), the 159 (Streatham, Brixton and Kennington) and the 453 (Deptford, New Cross and the Old Kent Road) stop on Haymarket and Regent Street. The 176 (Penge, Forest Hill, Dulwich, Camberwell and Elephant & Castle) stops on Charing Cross Road
• From Waterloo, the Strand and Bloomsbury: the 139 from Waterloo, and the 9 and 23 from the Aldwych and Charing Cross, stop on Haymarket and Regent Street. The 176 from Waterloo stops on Charing Cross Road. The 14 from Russell Square and the British Museum stops on Shaftesbury Avenue

Late at night, the N19 stops on Shaftesbury Avenue, and plenty of other night routes run from the Haymarket stops and Charing Cross Road.

By car

There's no parking at the theatre, and driving isn't the easy option here: Shaftesbury Avenue is part of a busy one-way system. The nearest car parks:

• NCP London Soho, 32 Brewer Street, behind the theatre, under 5 minutes' walk, open 24 hours
• Q-Park Leicester Square, Whitcomb Street, about 5 minutes' walk
• Q-Park Chinatown, Newport Place, about 5 minutes' walk, with two spaces for disabled drivers

You're inside the Congestion Charge zone. It's £18 a day, and it runs 7am to 6pm on weekdays and midday to 6pm at weekends, so an evening performance falls outside it and a matinee doesn't. ULEZ runs at all hours, but most petrol cars from around 2006 and diesels from around 2015 meet the standard and pay nothing.

For a taxi or a drop-off, pull up on Shaftesbury Avenue near the main entrance, or round the corner on Rupert Street. There are very few Blue Badge bays nearby, so a badge holder is better off booking one of the car parks above.

Walking from elsewhere

The Apollo Theatre is next door, and the Palace Theatre is at the far end of Shaftesbury Avenue, at Cambridge Circus. Chinatown is a few minutes' walk away.

What time to arrive

Arrive 20 to 30 minutes before, no later. There are bag checks at the door and the foyer is small for a theatre this size, so the queue builds. The bars and the auditorium open about 45 minutes before the performance, and that's the time to order your interval drinks.

Latecomers are held until a suitable break in the performance, and getting in even then isn't guaranteed. At Hadestown that means missing at least part of the opening number, which tells you the whole story, ending included.