Accessibility home | Access facilities | Assisted performances | Access resources
At the Bloomsbury Theatre, we have a range of ticket booking options for those with access requirements. This includes concession tickets, free tickets for Essential Companions, seating options for wheelchair users and for those with other particular requirements.
Tickets can be booked online, in person at our Box Office, or over the phone with our Box Office team.
We do not currently work with a third party access scheme, and do not require proof or evidence of disability to qualify for support. However, to book access tickets online, you will first need to ensure the access record on your customer account is up to date with your specific requirements. More information on this is below.
Of course, if you need any support making your booking, you can contact our Box Office team who will be happy to help.
Concession tickets
We know that living with disability can often be financially demanding, so with this in mind we offer a disabled concession for all of our performances. While the ticket prices for events are set by the producers for each show, providing a disabled concession is something that we require of all visiting companies to the venue.
We do not ask for proof or evidence of disability, and rely on the honesty and goodwill of our customers to ensure that we are able to continue to provide this concession to those who need it most.
Wheelchair users
Our main auditorium has five positions available for wheelchair users, including three in the stalls and two in the circle. These positions are not separate from the standard seating area, and require removal of other seats, so usually need to be booked in advance.
Our venue is set across different levels, so step free access is provided by using the customer lifts in the building. These include platform, glass fronted and enclosed customer lifts. We are unable to provide step-free access to the main auditorium without using lifts.
Due to the limitations of our space, different wheelchair positions can accomodate different sizes of wheelchair. If the total dimensions of your chair, including any head or foot rests, are larger than 80cm x 110cm, you will need to book a position in the stalls. If the base of your chair is deeper than 120cm, excluding foot rests, you will need to book the position in the front row of the stalls. For more detailed information on wheelchair position sizes, you can download our fact sheet from our Access Resources page, or contact us directly.
To ensure that wheelchair positions are available to those who need them, we hold back any seats from sale that need to removed to create the spaces. As a performance begins to sell out, any remaining positions may be returned to general sale. We aim to always keep one position available until the month of the performance, however if all other seats are sold will then release the remaining position for general sale.
If you are a wheelchair user but prefer to transfer out of your chair you should book a seat towards the aisle, on the left hand side of our seating map. There are shallow steps inside the theatre, so if you need any advice on step-free access for transferring please do get in touch. We do hold some aisle seats off sale for transferring wheelchair users, so if you update your access information online you will be able to view and book these.
Essential Companions
We also offer free tickets for Essential Companions, to support those who would otherwise not be able to visit the theatre independently for one of our shows.
The Essential Companion does not need to be a registered carer, however we do ask that the companion is aged 16 or over, and accepts full responsibility for providing whatever additional support is required to assist the person in their care with access to our venues and services. This includes in an emergency situation where an evacuation of the building might be required.
Please note that this is not a concession for registered carers to attend shows in their own free time, but is a way of us allowing customers who need additional support to attend our shows to do so without the expense of paying for a second ticket.
Individual parents and guardians of children do not qualify as an Essential Companion, as no young person is able to attend our events without a responsible adult. If a young person needs more than one adult to support them, an Essential Companion may be available but will need to be booked through the Box Office directly.
*To book Essential Companion tickets online, you will need to have updated your access record. (See more information below)
Other access tickets
From time to time, we may hold back other seats for audiences with a particular accessibility requirement. For example, where a performance or event includes BSL we may hold specific seats back from general sale that have good sightlines to the interpreter.
There are also times when we may hold back an allocation of aisle seats, or those that are accessible by as few steps as possible.
By updating your access record with your requirements, appropriate seats that are held off will become visible for you to book online.
Making a booking online
To make a booking online for specific access tickets, you will first need to update the accessibility record on your customer account.
To do this, create or login to your customer account, and go to the Other Preferences tab at the top of the page. Here, you will see a list of check boxes that you can select in order to create your record. This list is not exhaustive, and if you have any additional information you would like to let us know about so that we can best support you, please do contact us so that we can add this to your record manually.
Once you have checked all boxes that apply, you will then be able to view and book specific access tickets across all our performances. This includes access to book wheelchair positions, as well as Essential Companion tickets and other tickets held for specific accessibility reasons.
Click here to update your accessibility record
Wheelchair users
Once your tags are updated, you will be able to choose which position you'd like by selecting any of the wheelchair icons on the seating plan. There are two different icons based on the size of the wheelchair that you have selected on your record.
Standard size wheelchair.Next to the wheelchair icons, you will also see a star icon which is a seat held for you to bring a guest or Essential Companion. If you are planning to sit with a larger party of guests, and are unable to book this online yourself, please contact us and we will be happy to assist you with your booking.
Essential Companions
If you are booking an Essential Companion ticket online, you should select an 'Essential Companion' ticket when choosing your tickets. This ticket will initially display as the full price, but provided you have updated your access record accordingly, this will be discounted to £0.00 when you get to the checkout.
The Essential Companion tickets are only available online when booked alongside a full price or disabled ticket. Please note that you will also only be able to book one Essential Companion ticket per event. If you require support from more than one Essential Companion in order to attend the event, please contact the Box Office directly to process your booking.
For family performances, including Stick Man, Essential Companion tickets are only be available when purchased alongside a Disabled concession ticket. The parents and guardians of children do not qualify as an Essential Companion, and must purchase an Adult ticket. No young person is able to attend our events without a responsible adult.
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