Your visit

A space for everyone. Make yourself at home.

With our light and comfortable spaces and outdoor seating overlooking Oaklands Park, we invite you to come and relax at CFT whether you're seeing a show, having lunch with friends, or grabbing a coffee while browsing with our free Wi-Fi.

Looking for seating plans so you can decide where to book your tickets? You can find seating plans here alongside lots of other useful info about booking.

If you're walking, driving, taking the train, catching a bus or hopping on your bike, we're easy to find.

Getting here

Coming by public transport?

To plan your journey from door to door use our ecoway travel planner for the quickest route. Just pop your postcode into the map below and you'll be offered the best options.

By rail

Chichester Station is a 20 minute walk or a 5 minute taxi ride away, with regular direct links to London Victoria, Brighton, Portsmouth, Southampton, and Gatwick Airport. Connect to London Waterloo trains at nearby Havant. Visit nationalrail.co.uk or call 08457 484950 for timetables, restricted services and other details.

Walking directions from the station (20 minute walk):
Head out of the main entrance towards The Foundry Pub (or, if you arrive from London Victoria or Brighton on the southern side of the station, turn left across the level crossing) and walk past the pub, keeping it on your left, and straight up South Street until you come to The Cross (stone monument) at the intersection of four streets. Continue straight ahead up North Street. At the top of North Street is a ring road; take the pedestrian underpass to Northgate Car Park and continue through the car park to reach the Theatre on the far side.

By bus

The number 60 Stagecoach bus stops near the Theatre. Visit the Stagecoach website for more information.

Organising a coach group?

Coming with a large group? The coach drop-off point is outside the Festival Theatre with a coach park in Via Ravenna.

Check out our groups offers and deals here.

Planning a bike tour?

We're linked to the city’s cycle lane network and our bike park can hold 26 bicycles. It's right next to the Pimlott Building by the park, just off the Theatre’s access road. chichester.gov.uk/cycling

Car-pooling with friends?

The M27 and A27 run along the coast, linking Hampshire, Sussex and Kent. The M3, A3, A29, A259 and A24 connect Portsmouth, Southampton, Mid-Sussex and London. Use the map above for directions to Chichester Festival Theatre. It's also worth looking out for scheduled roadworks on the West Sussex County Council website.

We'd encourage you to think green and minimise car travel where possible but recognise that driving may be your only travel option. If so, you have the option to carbon-offset your journey for £1, when booking your tickets. This £1 goes directly to Ecologi to support carbon-offsetting projects and international tree-planting programmes. Read more about this partnership here.

Parking

Northgate Car Park (PO19 6AA) is a 900-space council-run pay and display car park right on our doorstep, which charges from 8am until 8pm Monday - Saturday and 10am until 5pm on Sundays. You can pay by cash, card and contactless and the MiPermit app - chichester.gov.uk/mipermit

As we're so conveniently located, the car park can get very busy and often full with city centre shoppers as well as our audiences. Allow plenty of time to park (especially if you're coming to a matinee!) and consider alternative car parks in Chichester. You can find all options at chichester.gov.uk/parking.

Parking for disabled patrons

If you have a Blue Badge you can park anywhere in Northgate Car Park free of charge. There are 9 non-reservable spaces close to the Theatre entrance. Visit Chichester District Council for other available car parks.

We have a 'drop off' area in front of the Theatres, which you can access from the Broyle Road entrance.

A Chichester quirk

On Saturday 19 October, the car park closes at 6pm in preparation for Sloe Fair and will remain closed until midday on Tuesday 22 October.

Catch CFT's Theatre Bus

Want to see that show but there’s no public transport to get you home? Wish you could get to the theatre more sustainably? Travelling by train but finding the walk to CFT tricky?

Check out our Theatre Bus schedule*

*We're delighted to offer this free service from Selsey on selected performances of Coram Boy, Oliver! and Redlands and Chichester railway station on selected performances of Oliver!, and The Caretaker.

Once you're here...