Sadler's Wells runs four stages: the 1,500-seat main house in Angel, the 180-seat Lilian Baylis Studio in the same building, the 1,000-seat Peacock Theatre in Holborn and the 550-seat Sadler's Wells East in the Olympic Park. Tickets start around £15, and anyone aged 16 to 30 can join a free scheme that makes almost any seat £10.
If you have never watched dance, the choice of building matters more than the choice of show. The main house in Angel takes the big international companies, the Peacock takes the crowd-pleasers and the circus and tap shows, the Lilian Baylis Studio takes new and experimental work, and Stratford takes the newest programme of the four. Book the wrong one and you can end up at an hour of abstract solo work when you wanted flamenco.
Our guide to Angel and Finsbury Park covers the main theatre's place in its neighbourhood, and East Bank and Stratford Cross covers the Stratford building. This page is about booking: which stage, what it costs, and what to pick first.
The four stages
- Sadler's Wells Theatre, Angel
- 1,500 seats. Large-scale national and international companies. Rosebery Avenue, EC1R 4TN
- Lilian Baylis Studio
- 180 seats, in the same building. Emerging artists, experimental work and shows for young audiences
- Peacock Theatre, Holborn
- 1,000 seats. A new show every few weeks: dance, alternative circus, physical theatre, tap
- Sadler's Wells East, Stratford
- 550 seats, opened February 2025, plus six studios, a public dance floor and a bar
- Prices
- From about £15, plus a transaction fee
- Ages 16 to 30
- Barclays Dance Pass: free to join, £10 tickets, up to two per production
- Free
- The Dance Floor at Sadler's Wells East: classes, open sessions and family workshops in the foyer
A theatre on the same site since 1683
The Angel building is the sixth theatre to stand on the site. There has been one there since 1683, when a well in a Mr Sadler's garden drew crowds to take the water and he built somewhere for them to be entertained. The current building opened in 1998, and from the street it gives nothing away: a plain modern frontage on Rosebery Avenue between Angel and Clerkenwell.
Inside it is a proper large auditorium with a deep stage, which is why the companies that tour internationally come here rather than to a West End house. If you see one thing in London that you could not see at home, this is where it is most likely to be.
What to book if you have never watched dance
Start with something with a story or a strong idiom rather than pure abstraction. The autumn 2026 programme was a fair sample of how the four stages divide up:
| Show | Where | When |
|---|---|---|
| English National Ballet, Rhythm Riot | Sadler's Wells Theatre | 30 September to 3 October 2026 |
| Flamenc Oh!! | Peacock Theatre | 30 September to 10 October 2026 |
| Alleyne Dance, Far From Home | Sadler's Wells Theatre | 15 to 17 October 2026, from £15 |
| STORIES, tap dance | Peacock Theatre | 14 to 31 October 2026 |
| The Snowman | Peacock Theatre | 21 November 2026 to 3 January 2027 |
On that list, flamenco and tap are the easiest first evenings because the rhythm does the explaining, a company like English National Ballet gives you technique you can recognise, and a narrative piece such as Far From Home gives you something to follow. The Lilian Baylis Studio is where you go on your third visit, not your first: it is 180 seats of new work, often 60 minutes long, and often very good, but it assumes you already like the form.
Read the running time before you book, not the description. A double bill in the main house can run two and a half hours with an interval; a studio piece can be an hour straight through with no interval and no interval drink. Neither is better, but one of them is a very different evening from a West End musical, and the length is the clearest signal of which you are getting.
What a ticket costs, and the fee nobody mentions
Prices are per production rather than per venue, and the cheapest band starts around £15: the October 2026 Alleyne Dance run at the main house was advertised at "from £15.00". On top of that comes a transaction fee, charged once per order rather than per ticket.
The size of that fee is stated inconsistently on Sadler's Wells' own site. The booking page for the Alleyne Dance run listed a £4.00 transaction fee; the terms for the young people's scheme describe the standard transaction charge as £3.50. We have printed both rather than choosing, and you will see the real figure at checkout.
For comparison with the commercial theatres, a cheap band at Sadler's Wells is roughly the price of the cheapest West End stalls restricted-view seat, and considerably less than a mid-price musical. Our guide to cheap theatre tickets in London explains the day-seat and rush systems that the dance houses do not really use.
£10 tickets if you are between 16 and 30
This is the single best offer in London dance and it is badly known. The Barclays Dance Pass is free to join, open to anyone aged 16 to 30, and gives £10 tickets to the majority of performances at all four Sadler's Wells stages and some performances elsewhere. You can buy two per production, so a friend can come at the same price, provided they are also in the age range.
The conditions are worth reading. Tickets come from an allocation per performance, so a sold-out show may have none left. They cannot be combined with other discounts. They must be bought from Sadler's Wells directly, not a third party. And they are exempt from the transaction fee, although an order that mixes pass tickets with ordinary ones pays the fee on the whole order. Tickets are collected from the ticket office, available from 90 minutes before the performance.
Two people under 30 can see a world-class company for £20 in total. Sign up before you look at the programme rather than after, because the allocation for a popular run goes early. There is no membership charge and no minimum number of bookings.
The Dance Floor in Stratford, which costs nothing
Sadler's Wells East has something the other three do not: a public dance floor in its foyer, used for free activities rather than ticketed performances. The programme runs to lunchtime dance classes for all abilities, social dance workshops, open sessions where anyone can simply use the floor to practise, talks, DJ nights, community takeovers and Family Freestyle workshops for children aged two to four with a carer.
None of it is a show, and that is the point. If you are in the Olympic Park with children on a wet Saturday, a free dance workshop in a warm foyer with a café attached is a better hour than most paid attractions, and it belongs on any list of free things to do in London. Check the schedule before travelling, because the sessions are weekly rather than continuous.
Getting to each of them
| Venue | Nearest station | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Sadler's Wells Theatre and Lilian Baylis Studio | Angel (Northern line) | About ten minutes' walk down Rosebery Avenue; Farringdon is a similar distance |
| Peacock Theatre | Holborn (Central, Piccadilly) | On Portugal Street, behind Kingsway; Temple and Covent Garden are also close |
| Sadler's Wells East | Stratford | Elizabeth line, Central, Jubilee, DLR and Overground, then a walk through the park |
The Stratford building is the easiest to reach from a long way out, because the Elizabeth line puts Bond Street 20 minutes away, and it is the hardest to reach from the West End late at night on a Sunday. The Peacock is the one to choose if you are staying centrally and want to walk back: Holborn is ten minutes from Covent Garden.
The Peacock at Christmas, and other family dates
The Peacock Theatre takes a Christmas show every year, and in 2026 it is The Snowman, running from 21 November to 3 January. It is the dance world's equivalent of a pantomime: short, wordless, musical and completely comprehensible to a five-year-old. If you are choosing between that and the traditional alternative, our guide to pantomime at Christmas sets out what a panto actually involves.
The Lilian Baylis Studio also programmes work made specifically for young audiences, which is usually shorter, cheaper and far better judged for children than a full-length ballet. Ask the ticket office what age a show is aimed at; they will tell you honestly.
The rest of dance in London
Sadler's Wells is the centre of it, but not all of it. The Royal Ballet performs at Covent Garden, covered in our guide to the Royal Opera House, and that is where to go for the nineteenth-century classics with a full orchestra. The Place, at 17 Duke's Road near Euston, is the home of London Contemporary Dance School and runs more than forty-five weekly dance classes as well as a small performance programme, so it is the place to take a class rather than watch one. The Barbican and the Southbank Centre both programme large-scale international dance a few times a year, alongside the concert seasons described in classical music in London.
Outside the theatres, the free dance you are most likely to see in London is at a festival: the lion and dragon dances at Chinese New Year and the mass dance sequence that opens Diwali on Trafalgar Square are both worth timing a day around, and both cost nothing.
Frequently asked questions
How many theatres does Sadler's Wells have?
Four. Sadler's Wells Theatre in Angel seats 1,500 and the Lilian Baylis Studio in the same building seats 180. The Peacock Theatre in Holborn seats 1,000, and Sadler's Wells East in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, which opened in February 2025, seats 550 and has six studios and a public dance floor.
How much are tickets at Sadler's Wells?
Prices vary by production and start at about £15 for the cheapest band, plus a transaction fee charged once per order. The site quotes that fee as £4.00 on one booking page and £3.50 in the terms of its young people's scheme. Anyone aged 16 to 30 can get £10 tickets to most performances.
What is the Barclays Dance Pass?
A free scheme for people aged 16 to 30 that gives £10 tickets to the majority of performances at all four Sadler's Wells venues, up to two per production so a friend of the same age can come too. Tickets come from a limited allocation per performance and must be bought directly from Sadler's Wells.
Which Sadler's Wells venue should I book for a first dance show?
The main house in Angel for a major international company, or the Peacock in Holborn for something with a strong rhythm such as flamenco or tap, which is the easiest way in if you have never watched dance. Leave the 180-seat Lilian Baylis Studio, which programmes new and experimental work, until you know what you like.
Is there anything free at Sadler's Wells East?
Yes. The Dance Floor in the foyer hosts free classes, open dance sessions, talks, DJ nights and workshops for children aged two to four with a carer. It is not a performance space for ticketed shows, and the sessions run to a weekly schedule, so check what is on before you travel.
Sources
- Sadler's Wells - Our theatres, capacities and programmes (checked September 2026)
- Sadler's Wells - Barclays Dance Pass terms (checked September 2026)
- Sadler's Wells - The Dance Floor at Sadler's Wells East (checked September 2026)
- Sadler's Wells - Alleyne Dance, Far From Home, prices and dates (checked September 2026)
- Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park - East Bank (checked September 2026)
- The Place - classes, address and programme (checked September 2026)