Best/Worst Theatres - By Guest Facilities

Judging by personal experience only:

Worst:
Old Vic (poor facilities, nowhere to sit and wait, foyer is suffocating, cloackroom too expensive, BO staff often lack knowledge and too slow)
Donmar - just totally user-unfriendly on every possible level

Best:
The National (once you know you way around the building feels like second home, tasty cheap food at The Kitchen, tickets self-collecting machines, sockets, free exhibitions to kill time)
The Bridge (BO and users all smiles and super helpful, spacious bathrooms, loads of light (and beautiful too!), comfy seats, long bar).
Royal Court: amazing vibe about this place, overall welcoming, great food, staff always ready to help, lovely little bookshop and free playtexts at SD if you are lucky

Ok, you dangled so I'll bite, as I presume you're expecting a chain reaction Monkey.

Really? Presumably woman didn't hydrate in those days either. Is that likely to be true for other older buildings thus explaining the few squeezed in toilets we get? 

Except in a round about way they are, i'm not going to spend lots of money on drinks in a place if you then have to queue for ages for a toilet. Ok, I am a cheap skate and always take tap water but if we ignore that factor......... in a similar way if there's waiting room i'm more likely to go early and succumb to something like a programme, if it's squash room only i'm likely to leave it much later.

The Bridge is excellent, after all it is a theatre that speaks for its time and is designed for a 21sr century audience, where some theatres featured on this thread were aimed at a 19th century Victorian audience.

Looking forward to going back there to see a Julius Caesar and going not just for the play.

Re Young Vic:
I actually like the place. Great coffee and the bar, even though with limited space, is a nice one to relax before or after the show.
Staff is frendly and helpful. I once returned an already collected ticket by phone and got an instant refund (hardly ever happens in any other theatre). When I arrived with the big piece of lagguage, even though the place doesn't have a cloakroom, they did not send me away to Waerloo station - it was taken care of by security who put in into the back room for me free of charge. A BO lady lended me a pen once and cafe staff did not charge me for the meal because my order took too long to take (basically, they forgot about me for 10 minutes but any other waitor could just shrug this off 'cause the place was pretty full).

Just as well I've from more modern times, I'm failing miserably on all counts currently (hope to put the last one off for some time yet).

I was in the New Victoria Theatre, Woking 2 week’s ago for Sunset Boulevard and OMG what a beautiful house, absolutely a treat to see something there. Second time going there after seeing Chess there a few years back.

I note that Woking is 25 minutes on a fast train from Waterloo.
Wimbledon is about 20 minutes on a train from thes same station and has a theatre that is a dive.
Given the choice I am going to push the train out and go to Woking if possible instead.

The gents on the stalls (not literally) are awful, just like the Phoenix.

The New Victoria is indeed a beautiful theatre (and therefore vastly out of keeping with the hideous town centre in which it sits) and I would go there more often but for the journey being complicated for me - I have either to go via Guildford, which is slow and means I can't buy a Travelcard and go onto London for the evening - or via Clapham, which is also slow.

The other aspect which really deters me is how soul-destroyingly bleak the town centre is.  If/when I go somewhere to see a play, I like to have a little time to wander around and explore; sometimes longer if it's a place I know and love, such as Chichester.  But when I do go to Woking, it's more a case of trying not to look at the surroundings but to get from station to theatre and back again as swiftly and straightforwardly as possible.

That said, Woking audiences are in my limited experience there immeasurably better-behaved than the raucous rabble I've often encountered at the New Wimbledon, and productions often visit both venues, so for those who can face Woking itself, something to bear in mind.

So far as New Wimbledon audiences are concerned, I'm not tarring everyone with the same brush and I did indeed say I had "often" rather than invariably encountered the less appealing type. Also, I've never had an issue there with solo theatregoers or couples or indeed men, so far as I recall; it has always been large groups of well-lubricated women, dressed up to what we used to call the nines and generally looking and acting as though they were on a hen night rather than a theatre trip. There's a difference between having a good time with some friends and spoiling the enjoyment of others and deterring them from returning - though with the business the New Wimbledon derives from these patrons, if the theatre had to choose they'd probably prefer to lose the quieter, non-imbibing smaller parties or singles.

EDIT:  so maybe it's a case of the guest facilities - since this is the thread subject - being too good for some!

I went to see Grease in September and Shrek in December and I completely forgot! The new paint job is indeed lovely and much better than the gaudy red of before. The carpets are definitely not as sticky as they used to be which is a good sign.