National Theatre

What can I say; it's the National! It's a National Treasure... that's what the T stands for in NT... the stages are just superb. They have the most amazing prop and costume department. Surely the envy of any theatre anywhere in the world and the rotunda in the Olivier theatre, well it's ;truly astonishing. It's the only theatre I have ever been to where my breath has been taken away time and time again... long live the NT and please keep up the funding!

This place is pretty much my spiritual home.

Other than the theatre offerings, obviously, there is always something fun going on. In the summer, there are festivals on the Riverfront; in the winter, you can run around to the Greenroom for seasonal drinking.

The restaurants are good, the Understudy has a decent range of crafts beers, and the cakes in Kitchen are marvellous.

You can visit the terrace for a grand view of the Southbank, and you can spend a fortune in the bookshop.

An absolute must-visit for Londoners and tourists alike.

What a view! this place is spectacular, especially in the midst of the busy crowds that roam around in this area. The space outside is really expansive, with tables, green area, and the view... wow... you can see the london eye, the classic red buses passing by the bridge... it's very soothing. As you walk on the terrace around the building, you'll pass by long glass windows and see the workers delve upon their daily tasks - from building sets to sowing costumes - it's a very interesting experience. Inside it's quite nice as well, but I just came inside to check out the architecture, so didn't really go to a show yet.

Great location, huge range of plays, multiple theatres in the same building, tickets for 15 quid, great seating areas to eat your sandwich first, tap water on all the bars - what more do you want from a theatre?!

After visiting the concrete central of National Theatre, we thought we would visit the Green Room cafe for dinner. It's a cool all glass building looking out onto Southbank market. It has a European menu and I would say the food is average. We ordered wings for starters and they were quite spicy. We asked for something to cool the spice and the waitress never returned till we had almost finished to tell us they didn't have anything. For mains we ordered a lamb hotdog and the cod dish. The cod dish was really fresh as it was served with garden peas and potatoes. The hot dog was not pleasant, the lamb sausage and bun were both very dry.

The service was also quite slow. We asked for water and would receive one at a time, always having to wait for one to be given to us. We let the venue know about this but they said some of the waitresses were still training so we can't really complain.

Perhaps not the friendlist looking place, but step through the doors and it is amazing the vast amountil at the NT offers. Not only has it 3 theatre spaces, offering a variety of cutting edge productions from both produced at the National as well as coming from around the country. It also has no fewer than 4 doffered places to eat including upmarket House restaurant, Terrace and one of the newestate additions, The Green Room which is out the back of the theatre. The NT puts on events outside overlooking the Thames during the summer, has an amazing bookshop and ample public seating with free WiFi. Got to be seen to be believed.

The National is one of the best places to see a play and the way it stages a production is awesome irrespective of the genre.  The set designs are innovative, exciting and clever.  They have a real variety of productions and consistently change things up.  The cafe is also a good place to grab a drink if you’re ever on the Southbank.