The Old Vic hires its spaces for meetings, conferences, dinners, drinks receptions, filming and weddings, from a boardroom table for 28 to a 1,000-seat auditorium, with up to 400 standing guests for a full backstage takeover. The theater stands on The Cut, in the Waterloo district of south London, and has staged plays since it opened in 1818.
Seminars and company events
The events team takes conferences and meetings, breakfasts, lunches and dinners, drinks receptions, festive parties, summer parties and brand activations. Readings, rehearsals, workshops and auditions also fit, as do filming and photo shoots. A small team can meet in the Event Space around a boardroom table for 28, a training session of 120 can sit theatre style in the Greene Studio, and a company presentation or awards night can fill the auditorium with up to 1,000 seats. For a networking evening, the Backstage Bar holds 180 standing and the Foyer Bars hold 400. The online enquiry form covers groups of up to 120; larger events in the auditorium or across the backstage areas are arranged directly with the events team.
Weddings and receptions
The theater hosts wedding ceremonies in three of its spaces: the Event Space for 40, the Greene Studio for 100 and the auditorium for more than 600. The Greene Studio then seats 80 for the wedding dinner, while the Script Library and the Backstage Bar suit a smaller meal or the evening drinks. A couple can take the whole backstage area for a party of up to 400.
Rooms and capacities
The Event Space takes 50 standing, 30 for dinner, 45 theatre style or 28 around a boardroom table. The Script Library holds 80 standing or 40 for dinner. The Backstage Bar holds 180 standing or seats 60. Taken together, the backstage areas hold 400 standing. The Greene Studio takes 120 standing or theatre style and 80 for dinner. The auditorium seats 1,000, and the Foyer Bars receive 400 standing guests. Several of these spaces can be combined, so a conference can run its plenary in the auditorium and continue with drinks in the bars.
History and setting
The theater opened in 1818 as the Royal Coburg Theatre and was renamed the Royal Victoria in 1833, which gave it the short name Old Vic. From 1912 Lilian Baylis ran it and made it a home for Shakespeare in London. Between 1963 and 1976 it housed the newly founded National Theatre company, before the company moved to its building on the South Bank. Today The Old Vic runs as an independent theater with a full program of new plays and revivals, and the event spaces sit around and behind its stage.
Getting there
Waterloo station, with mainline trains and four Underground lines, is a few minutes away on foot, and Southwark station on the Jubilee line is equally close. The Cut is lined with restaurants and bars, and the South Bank, the London Eye and the river are within a short walk, which helps when guests arrive early or stay on after an evening event. London City Airport is reachable by the Jubilee line and the DLR, and Heathrow and Gatwick by train from central London.
