Anvil Arts Reviews

All ways a good night out staff frenly and helpful

Lulu at the Anvil, first night of her tour. Absolutely amazing performance.

Concert hall with excellent acoustics. The build also houses the Forge a 100 seat theatre and a bar. Classics to comedians. Basingstoke are lucky to have such a facility

I really liked it the only problem for me was a bit high where I was sitting as I am struggling with my walking.

I have been here to see many acts over the years. It is a nice little venue. The staff are always pleasant and there are a good number of bars. Venue is great for comedians, good for plays and okay for music. If you can, always get a centre ticket, it can really hurt your neck getting a side seat!

Brilliant place to go to see groups throughout the year and good for children at Christmas , plenty of space has a bar and outside seating area .carpark is next door there are lifts for disabled people and close to the train station and taxi rank. Very friendly people helpful always going the extra mile

Nice small venue with a good selection of shows. Seats are comfortable and the place is nice and clean. However the bars get very busy and the carpark will take you about half an hour to leave!

Bar is so slow, so get there and queue early. Venue is good. Clear views from most of it.

Great modern theatre with a decent range of performers. My family an Di have been to this theatre for years, it is distinct as its almost arena style seating are brilliant a d no matter what seat you pay for, you can always see. I recently went to see a Fleetwood Mac tribute act, the sound was incredible and set up for modern lighting set-ups. The interval drinks are organised seamlessly, you order at the bat before the start of the show and are given a number, there is a long running table with numbers on which you then simply go and find the correlating number and enjoy your drinks, it never fails. O ly downside is the lack of cubicle loos for the men.

Having never been before was pleasantly surprised at how nice it was and the sound quality was amazing

Lovely friendly theatre and the children loved the Peppa Pig show. Can have drinks and snacks in the foyer and also an area outside.

Performed here four or five times, once with choirs, once with orchestra. Amazing. However, the wires and cables that tripped a little boy over weren't so efficiently placed. But, that's okay. Also, there could be more of a less intimidating stage door staff crew. The man in the office was intimidating and scary, he almost made me not want to go out the doors.

First time here. Lovely little theatre. Saw Tina Turner tribute. Absolutely amazing show. Shame the stewards allowed nearly a whole row of girls to continually come and go throughout the performance

Excellent venue with what appears to be some very fine shows. Things to temps many different audiences. We thoroughly enjoyed the evening with Lost in music.

We went to watch Gary Numan in concert and loved the venue; not too big but acoustics were amazing. So easy to get to by train or car as well.

Great staff, very friendly and helpful. Small venue

Went to the tubular Bells show, and although I thought I had booked seats not requiring any steps to be climbed (my wife is waiting knee replacement) they were at the top of a flight. Spoke to the attendant who said the back of the theatre was closed so the lift could not be used, so we struggled up. 10 minutes later he came to us and told us we could use the lift to come down at the interval, and there were two seats on the level that we could use for the second half.
Excellent.

I went with my family to watch the Panto and it was great fun- the seats were comfortable and the atmosphere was lovely. Sadly, the hot chocolate I brought was expensive and didn't taste great. Would definitely return to The Anvil!

Very nice location and cute decor. Unfortunately I found the staff a bit stand offish. The food portions was great good value for money but it wasn t as nice as I wanted it to be. Probably won t visit again.

Brilliant night, Drifters were outstanding loved it. Staff were very helpful and happy. X

The theatre seating is comfortable and easily accessible. The waiting area is nice, with a cafe, tables and plenty of seating. You can get an alcoholic drink ,tea, coffee and snacks. I've enjoyed each show I've seen there. The staff is always friendly and welcoming. The atmosphere is always nice and comfortable.

Tony Blackburn and his 60 's band very good. Brilliant. Funny.

A nice little theatre, marred by ludicrously high prices at the bar. My advice to those wanting a pre-show drink, would be to call at your favourite pub 'on the way'.

Built on a site originally set aside for the third phase of Basingstoke's shopping centre, The Anvil was built to tackle what was then seen as a 'cultural desert' in the Basingstoke area. The aim of the project was to raise the profile of More

Comfy seats and nice venue. I wouldn't recommend to sit in the first 4 rows :)
Easy access- plenty of cheap parking.

Good venue with a range of entertainment available.

Absolutely love going to this theatre. The stage shows are always of an excellent standard and the staff couldn't be more friendly. Also, I think the ticket prices are reasonable

One large and one small venue here allowing a good variety of entertainments. Decent choice of drinks/ ice cream etc

Watched a performance of The Nutcracker which was excellent. Good view from the seats and plenty of booster seats for the younger children. Shame that we couldn't get a glass of water afterwards for one of the children (nor could we buy any).

Who likes to watch the drama show, they should visit one time. Nice place with parking facilities

Excellent venue. Saw Illegal Eagles. Have visited the anvil many times, always a favourite of ours.

Spacious theatre facility in Basingstoke town centre. The chairs could be a bit more comfortable but one can't complain too much when big names come to Basingstoke as it saves you a train trip to London :)

Good concert hall. Modernist design with some surprisingly old fashioned accessibility issues.

Easily accessible by rail or car. Friendly staff, clean and a very good concert hall.

Excellent venue with great acoustics. Staff always very pleasant. Parking very convenient but wish council would maintain lifts more efficiently, particularly difficult for less able people with only one lift available on my last two visits. Concerts have been excellent and pre-concert talks are well worth attending.

Brilliant show tonight. The Simon and Garfunkel story.

Very good evening can not wait until Daniel O'Donnell comes again

Nice venue. Good sound and even at the sides you get a good view. Seen a few off the beaten track people.. But all quality

Excellent concert venue with one of the best views of the stage from a wheelchair users perspective I have been to. Highly recommended.

We had a good time visiting here, I'd definitely come again for more live shows. The facilities are good, the food and drinks selection is limited but acceptable.

The staff there where extremely helpful as we had lost had lost our tikets and they very quickly reprinted them after only asking a few questions.the hygiene of their lavatories was impeccable and I had a wonderful time.

Standard small town venue, needs better air conditioning though.

Needs more disabled seats. Had to be seated somewhere else which meant leaving the wheelchair at the auditorium door and struggling to my seat with the help of my partner and son.

Also, and preventably, the two lads next to my son were very drunk. They talked all the time and heckled Nish Kumar unintelligibly which spoiled the performance for everyone because Nish couldn't hear them well enough to give a response, so they just stopped the show. Also, because they were so drunk, they had to come past us about a dozen times to use the toilets. Surely the bar staff should have been trained to stop serving them?

Finally, what's with wearing bobble hats inside during the performance? Is this the latest hipster trend? Do we need signs up in theatres again asking patrons to remove their hats? Ridiculous!

All in all, even though the performance by Nish Kumar was excellent, the experience was poor. This is a great shame because our previous visit here was *really* enjoyable.

Love this place: been there a lot with school (performing and watching), Basingstoke Area Junior Choir (performing) and generally watching, singing along and enjoying!

Very nice venue. Well set out, nice bars, good auditorium. Eash for parking and foodshops.

Great music hall in Basingstoke! I played there few times and love the RAT music stands

A shame that the ushers cannot do their job properly. People walking in and out of the auditorium during the performance, people standing up so that the view of the stage is completely obscured for those in wheelchairs, maybe it will take an accident before the staff realise that their primary job is the safety of customers and not flogging ice creams.

Fabulous place to watch a show. Very friendly, helpful staff.

Went today with the organisation that I am working for and the staff were absolutely excellent, was pleased to note how accommodating they were

Brilliant evening watching 10cc. First evening at The Anvil. Well staffed, comfortable seats, and brilliant quality of sound from their systems.

Fortunate to see Robert Plant here. Great view and sound.

Eady to get to. Parking close by. Lovely atmosphere. Refreshments.

Lovely venue. There are very few bad seats here. Box office is both efficient and helpful.

Good venue, show was excellent, food and drink a bit on the expensive side, but I didn't let that detract me from the plusses. Can't say anything about the parking, got a taxi there and back.

Lovely place to see my first pantomime after all these years

Great venue. Well banked seating and good sound system

A varied selection of events presented in two performance spaces; the main stage ~2000 or the much more intimate Forge which holds just over 100.

Fantastic venue! A theatre Basingstoke can be proud of.
I believe it has one of the best acoustics of any theatre in the Country!
It stages such diverse subjects such as Opera to Burlesque, school choirs to top singers.

Excellent venue, fully wheelchair accessible and nearby free disabled parking too. Would highly recommend it.

A great theatre with good views from all seats. Shame that the restaurants are at the other end of the shopping precinct.

Great theatre, friendly staff and good seating giving a good view of the stage. Upstairs and downstairs bar for the interval and an outdoor balcony area. In a good location with some places to eat nearby, but on the opposite side of the town centre to the main restaurants, clubs and bars.

Russell Watson concert. Theatre always clean staff hospitable. Disabled facilities are great. Next visit in March.

Come here a few times a year. Usually attend the panto which is always top class. Classical music events and comedy gigs are our other reasons to visit. Staff are always on hand and very welcoming.

Did a concert here and it is a beautiful place to play at and watch concerts

Have watched a few things here, including Jaws with live orchestra; good venue!

Tidy well designed arts centre saw Big Big Train great evening out

Friendly staff, wonderful venue, and I found bar prices reasonable, even for the Ice cream!!! Keep it up people of Anvil, you are amazing

Good venue. Finding car after in the dark with my 3 kids was a challenge though!

Had a brilliant night seeing Boney M & Odyssey at the Anvil Theatre. Excellent, well thought out theatre. Comfortable seating with excellent view of the stage. Superb disabled / Wheelchair spaces. Adequate disabled persons toilet although a little awkward to get into. Nice indoor and outdoor seating area for pre drinks. Polite, courteous staff.
Well done Anvil Theatre.

Good experience. View was good from the middle. Seats okish. Probably take a cushion next time.
Friendly, helpful staff & clean loos.

Good acoustics and nicely laid out. Staff friendly as well