Limelight
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Before you come

Everything worth knowing first.

Doors, access, earplugs, the last train and what to do if something goes wrong. Written out properly rather than hidden in a booking flow.

Getting in

Doors are half past seven for live shows and ten o’clock for club nights, and the stage times printed on your ticket are the ones we keep to — the club night needs the room by half eleven, so an eleven o’clock curfew really is eleven. Bring the email or do not: every ticket is held on the door in your name until half an hour before stage time, so a flat phone battery has never stopped anybody getting in. Club nights are eighteen and over and we do ask for photo ID, every time, of everybody, which occasionally annoys people in their forties and we would rather that than lose the licence. Under-18s are welcome at seated shows with an adult, at half price.

Access

The building is Grade II listed, which limits what we can change, but the Ravenscliffe Road doors are step-free from the pavement all the way to the back of the stalls and there are four wheelchair spaces on the flat with a clear view of the stage. Ring ahead and Nadia will hold one, along with a free ticket for whoever comes with you — no forms, no proof, just a phone call. There is an accessible toilet on the stalls level. The balcony is up thirty-one stairs and there is no lift, and we will not pretend otherwise; if you have booked a booth and the stairs are a problem, tell us and we will move you to the front rail on the flat for the same money. Assistance dogs are welcome anywhere in the building and there is water for them at both bars.

The practical things

Both bars take cards and cash. There is a cloakroom for seated shows at two pounds a coat and none on club nights, because the queue at four in the morning was worse than the problem it solved. Earplugs are a pound at the box office and free if you ask for them for a child. There is no parking on site; the Portland Street multi-storey is four minutes on foot and free after six, and the last train to Leeds goes at twenty-three minutes past midnight, which is why our live curfew is eleven. Re-entry is allowed at seated shows and not on club nights. The smoking area is the yard off the side doors and it closes at two. Lost property lives behind the box office for a month — ring, and somebody will actually go and look.

Anything else

The questions the box office answers most often, in the order they get asked.

Live shows are standing on the floor with the balcony seated, unless the ticket says “Seated”, in which case we put two hundred and forty chairs in the stalls. Roughly thirty shows a year are seated and it is always on the poster and the ticket.

Sometimes. We release returns at the box office from doors and there are usually a few. Turn up rather than ringing, because whoever answers the phone genuinely will not know until the window opens.

Quarter past nine at a live show with support, half past eight without, and it is printed on your ticket. We have started late twice in thirteen years and both times somebody announced why.

No kitchen. There are three good places within two minutes on Ravenscliffe Road and the bar staff will tell you which is still serving, because they eat there too.

To a seated show, yes, at half price with an adult. To a Friday or Saturday club night, no — those are eighteen and over from ten o’clock and the licence does not bend.

Send Esme a link and the dates you can travel, at the address on the contact page. She replies to everything, usually inside a fortnight, and quite often the answer is no with a reason attached.

Noise, and looking after your ears

This is a loud room and we are not going to pretend otherwise. A club night runs at around a hundred decibels on the floor, which will do you no harm for one night and real harm every week for a decade. Earplugs are a pound at the box office, free for anyone under eighteen, and there is a basket of them on both bars that nobody ever gets told off for emptying. The quietest spot in the building is the back of the balcony, which is also the best sightline, and the loudest is directly in front of the stacks at stage left — if somebody in your group needs to be somewhere gentler, ask on the door and we will point at the right stairs rather than shrugging.

If something goes wrong on the night

Find any member of staff — everybody working here, including the bar, is trained for it and none of them will tell you to come back later. There is a duty manager on every show and their name is on the board by the box office. If you feel unsafe, the phrase is “is Ange working tonight?”, which is not a person: it is our code, every member of staff knows it, and it gets you taken somewhere quiet without you having to explain anything in front of anybody. We will call you a taxi, wait with you and, if you want, we will deal with whoever it is. We have banned nineteen people in thirteen years and we would rather that number went up than down.
Still not answered

Ring the box office and ask a person.

Tuesday to Saturday, noon until six, and from doors on show nights. Nobody here works from a script and nobody will put you on hold to read one.
Email the box office01422 960 118
Replies the same day, Tuesday to Saturday