Confusing Theatres?

Wilton's Music Hall - I always seem to get there by a different route each time and finding the tube station afterwards always seems fraught. The first time I went to The Park theatre in Finsbury I was wandering around all over the place but now it's easy. Oh, and The Other Palace sometimes catches me out.
If you drive to The Watermill in Newbury that can be elusive.

TOP is the one that causes the most difficulty for me. When I went to watch Showstoppers a few weeks ago, it must have taken me a good 30mins from leaving the tube to trying to find the theatre after going around in circles even though it was my 3rd time visiting that theatre (Google maps wasn’t much help). I tried asking the locals, but they have never heard of it (most confused it with The Victoria Palace).

The Donmar used to always catch me out, was convinced they kept moving it.

For me the Other Palace was a trek each time I went to it. I keep trying to get to it from a different road and it's not that I get lost it's more it's always difficult to reach!! Also the only time I have been to Playhouse and I have no idea why I couldn't find it I had to get out google maps. And I am there facing it and still couldn't see it. I also get theatres confused with each other.

I am always surprised when I randomly walk around London and a theatre is tucked away somewhere - like oh... that is where you are. Like the Donmar or Piccadilly.

Last time I went to the Watermill (or more accurately when I was travelling home again), they'd closed the slip road to the motorway and I simply COULD NOT get my satnav to understand that if I was driving off in the opposite direction then I needed an alternative route, not to be constantly sent back to the same closed slip road. I ended up pulling over, telling it to disregard motorways all together, and driving home cross-country. I also find Leicester and Chichester fairly upsetting to drive to, though at least the theatres themselves are fairly straightforward when you get to them.

And opposite The Ivy.

The Shaftesbury is a bit of an awkward one for me, as it's at the arse end of Shaftesbury Avenue, away from the sort of "hub" that is the Lyric/Gielgud/Queens etc. I think it may actually be closer to Holborn than Piccadilly Circus actually.

Another awkward one is the Palace Theatre, Manchester. It's kind of not really near anything, i.e. it's away from what people would think of as Manchester city centre (Piccadilly Gardens, The Arndale, Albert Square). I remember getting lost trying to find my way back to it after shopping pre-Wicked, so I just gave up and got an (expensive) taxi.

Also, the Arts Theatre is a bit of a weird one. I know it's near Leicester Square station, but I can never really remember which intersection of Charing Cross Road it is on.

The Other Palace was hard for me to find. I went there the day before the performance (I like to do this when I visit a new theatre/place, to make sure I can find it and not get lost the day of the performance and be late) and probably took the longest route but I did stick to it the following day.

I think this is a case of unfamiliarity changing the perspective of the size of a place. The Palace most certainly IS right in the City Centre and about 5 mins walk down Oxford Street from Albert Square. It’s also just little more than 5 mins walk from Piccadilly Station leaving by the Fairfield St exit and along Whitworth Street. But come out of the station via the main entrance and down the Station Approach ramp and it all seems much more complicated because youhaveto walk ‘around’ things. Manchester City Centre is really not very big, I can traverse it on foot in 25 minutes.

In exactly the same way the West End seems enourmous, complicated and confuses the hell out of me, I can’t find ANYthing without Google maps and have had many a eureka moment when I’ve turned a corner and seen some theatre or landmark without having a clue that it was there.

I usually go past the Victoria palace to Cardinal place shopping centre and walk straight through.

This is a good point. I hadn’t been to Manchester before this and I honestly couldn’t get my head around the street layout during my time there. To be fair, it is a bigger city than what I’m used to (Edinburgh).