Venue Description

York Theatre Royal has been producing great drama in the beautiful city of York for over 270 years and is one of the country’s leading producing theatres. Each year the theatre entertains over 200,000 people with its wide variety of performances, events and activities including the much loved annual pantomime starring Berwick Kaler, the UK’s longest-running Dame. Over the last ten years York Theatre Royal’s work has expanded to include collaborations with the wider community and school groups both on and off stage. The theatre has seen an increase in the number of young people wanting to get involved and as a result they now have one of the largest youth theatre groups in the country with over 300 members. In recent years, the theatre has had huge success in terms of number of attendees and various awards recognising their work for The Railway Children hosted at the National Railway Museum and then transferred to the old Eurostar terminal at Waterloo, and the large scale production of the York Mystery Plays 2012 involving over 1,000 members of the community.

Accessibility

York Theatre Royal is located in the centre of York, in close proximity to the York Art Gallery and Museum Gardens. The entrances at both sides have level access with automatic doors. The Box Office area has 1 low counter, which allows easy communication with staff and main foyer area is level access. The lower foyer has a platform lift and there is an enclosed platform lift to the Dress Circle allowing customers to use the Dress Circle level as well as the Stalls, There are 2 accessible toilets, one at ground floor level and 1 at Dress Circle level and the main auditorium is fitted with a radio system for deaf and hard of hearing visitors (headsets available from Box Office).

Accessible Performances

We offer Audio Described, Captioned and BSL performances for most shows and some Relaxed Performances (please see the website or speak to Box Office).

Toilets

Both accessible toilets have automatic doors, step free access, grab rails and easy turn locks and taps. The accessible toilet on the ground floor level has slightly restricted access for very large mobility scooters.

Staff

York Theatre Royal staff are very helpful and will always assist if required. We offer relaxed, audio described, captioned and BSL performances.

Assistance dog facilities

Assistance dog exercise facilities

Assistance dogs are always welcome at the venue, however there is not local access to an exercise area where dogs can be walked off the lead. For our accessible performances we can arrange a complimentary dog sitter to look after/walk the dog throughout the performance.

Other assistance dog facilities

Water bowls always available.