Royal Opera House — Tickets, Shows & Seating

The building and its history

There has been a theatre on this corner of Covent Garden since 1732. Two of them burned down — in 1808 and 1856 — and the building you walk into is the third, designed by E. M. Barry and opened in 1858. It is Grade I listed, the highest protection in the English system, and one of only a handful of theatres to hold it.

Barry's house was gutted, restored and hugely extended in the 1990s, reopening in December 1999 with new backstage facilities, the glass-roofed Floral Hall — now the Paul Hamlyn Hall — brought back into use, and a set of upper-level bars and terraces that finally gave the building somewhere to breathe.

The resident companies are The Royal Ballet and The Royal Opera, which since 2024 have presented themselves jointly as Royal Ballet and Opera. The building keeps its name. So does everyone's habit of calling it the ROH.

There are three performance spaces here: the Main Stage, the Linbury Theatre on level -1, and the small Clore Studio. Check which one your ticket is for.

Where to sit: the Main Stage auditorium in detail

The Main Stage seats around 2,256 in a steep horseshoe of five levels. It is one of the tallest auditoriums in London, and the practical consequence is that the levels are reached from completely different floors of the building.

Orchestra Stalls

The floor of the horseshoe, entered from the ground floor. The closest you can get, and the most expensive. See the accessibility section below before booking — this level has the worst step access in the house.

Stalls Circle

Also entered from the ground floor, and the first tier of the horseshoe. A strong compromise between proximity and elevation, and — unusually — one of the more accessible levels.

Donald Gordon Grand Tier

Reached from the second and third floors. The grandest level, largely boxes, and the traditional view of the stage that the architecture was designed around.

Balcony

Also from the second and third floors. Higher, and worth checking sightlines from the sides, where the horseshoe curves round towards the proscenium.

Amphitheatre

Right at the top, reached from the fourth and fifth floors. The cheapest seats in the house and — for opera especially — a legitimate choice rather than a compromise, because sound in this room carries upward well. The front row of the Amphitheatre is one of the best-value seats in London. It is also a very long way up, and the rake is steep.

Surtitles with English translations are displayed above the stage and on screens around the auditorium for every opera.

Travel and directions

Underground

Covent Garden on the Piccadilly line is the nearest station, but it is one of the busiest and most awkward on the network: there are steps around the platforms and 139 steep stairs to street level, with lifts as the alternative and frequent queues at both. Leicester Square, on the Piccadilly and Northern lines, is only a few minutes further and is very often quicker in practice. Holborn, Charing Cross and Embankment are all walkable.

Approaching on foot

The Piazza has uneven cobbles and several sloped pavements, and cyclists and vans still pass through despite the pedestrianisation. The route around the Opera House underneath the arcade is smooth tiled flooring and covered overhead — worth taking in bad weather or if cobbles are a problem.

By car

There is no theatre car park. Q-Park London at 34–35 Bedfordbury is the nearest with accessible spaces. There is pay-and-display on Henrietta Street, Southampton Street and Tavistock Street, and an NCP on Drury Lane. A limited number of Blue Badge bays are on Bow Street and Floral Street. The building is inside the Congestion Charge zone.

Accessibility at the Royal Opera House

The counterintuitive fact first: all seats in the Orchestra Stalls are reached by nine steps or more. The most expensive level in the house is the least accessible one, which is the opposite of what most people assume.

By contrast, there is lift access and step-free routes to over 100 seats in the Stalls Circle, Balcony and Amphitheatre, and some seats in the Stalls Circle, Balcony, Amphitheatre and Donald Gordon Grand Tier are reached by ten steps or fewer. If steps are a factor, book upward, not forward.

Step-free entry is via the power-assisted door at the Piazza entrance, or the ground-level entrance on Bow Street.

Lifts: those on the left-hand side of the Main Stage auditorium serve the Paul Hamlyn Hall, Crush Room, Linbury Foyer and Balconies Restaurant. The lift on the right-hand side serves the Level 5 bar, Cicoria and Bar Cicoria, and the Crush Room. All lifts reach the ground-floor Café.

Accessible toilets are gender neutral with alarm pull cords, on the ground floor (straight ahead from the Bow Street entrance, beside the left-hand lift), in the Linbury Foyer, and on Level 5 to the right of the bar. They sit close to the wheelchair spaces in the Main Stage auditorium.

There is no Changing Places facility at the Royal Opera House. The nearest is at the National Portrait Gallery, about ten minutes' walk away.

Linbury Theatre: for step-free access and wheelchair spaces, book seats on the right-hand side of the auditorium.

Clore Studio: two wheelchair spaces in Row A — contact the box office to book step-free options.

Hearing and sight: an assistive listening system operates in the Main Stage and the Linbury. Captioned performances differ from ordinary surtitles in that they also describe sounds, musical changes and performers' movements. Audio described performances come with audio introductions covering cast, characters and set, and touch tours of the stage, set and props, which must be booked directly with the box office.

Assistance dogs are welcome everywhere in the building — either in the auditorium with you or looked after by staff, arranged in advance.

The free Access Scheme is worth joining even if you visit rarely: it stores your requirements, opens priority booking for accessible performances, and unlocks companion tickets and access discounts. Register through your website account and complete the Accessibility tab, or call 020 7304 4000.

Full access information

Bars, cloakroom and facilities

• A handheld bell is rung by front-of-house staff about ten minutes before curtain and at each interval. It is loud, and it startles people who are not expecting it.
• Pre-theatre dining — three bookable restaurants: the Paul Hamlyn Hall on the third floor, the Crush Room, and the Balconies.
• All day — Cicoria and Bar Cicoria on the fifth floor, and the Royal Opera House Café on the ground floor.
• Pre-ordering food and drink for the interval is available and strongly advised at this house; the intervals are long but so are the queues.
• Free water-filling stations around the building.
• Large-print menus can be requested in advance from the box office.
• The shop is on the ground floor, reached by the ramp between the Café and the Shop, or from the Piazza.

Around the Royal Opera House: Covent Garden

• The Piazza and Market Building — directly outside, with street performers under the portico of St Paul's, the actors' church.
• Neal's Yard and Seven Dials — five minutes north-west, and better for eating than the Piazza itself.
• The London Transport Museum — on the Piazza's east side.
• Bow Street — the original home of the Bow Street Runners, London's first professional police force, directly opposite the Opera House.
• Somerset House and the Strand — eight minutes south for a quieter alternative before or after.

Insider tips

• Use Leicester Square, not Covent Garden. Covent Garden station has 139 stairs and permanent lift queues; Leicester Square is a few minutes' walk further and usually faster.
• If steps are a problem, book higher, not closer. Every Orchestra Stalls seat involves nine steps or more, while the Stalls Circle, Balcony and Amphitheatre have over 100 step-free seats between them.
• The front of the Amphitheatre is the value seat. Steep and high, but the sound rises and the sightline is clean.
• Pre-order your interval drinks. A 2,256-seat house empties into the bars all at once.
• Take the arcade, not the cobbles. The covered route around the building is smooth and dry; the Piazza is neither.

Royal Opera House FAQs

Where is the Royal Opera House?

Bow Street, Covent Garden, London WC2E 9DD, with a second entrance on the Covent Garden Piazza.

How many seats does the Royal Opera House have?

The Main Stage seats around 2,256 over five levels. The Linbury Theatre and Clore Studio are much smaller separate spaces in the same building.

What are the levels called?

Orchestra Stalls, Stalls Circle, Donald Gordon Grand Tier, Balcony and Amphitheatre.

Is the Royal Opera House wheelchair accessible?

Yes — step-free entry from the Piazza and Bow Street, with lift access to over 100 step-free seats in the Stalls Circle, Balcony and Amphitheatre. Note that all Orchestra Stalls seats involve nine steps or more.

Are operas performed in English?

Not usually, but English surtitles are shown above the stage and on screens around the auditorium for every opera.

Is there a Changing Places toilet?

No. The nearest is at the National Portrait Gallery, about ten minutes' walk away.