Red Rose Chain Your Visit & Access

Our home, The Avenue Theatre is the creative hub of Red Rose Chain, located in the centre of Ipswich, Suffolk.

Our purpose-built studio theatre sits within the grounds of Gippeswyk Hall, a Grade II* listed Tudor building and home to our community rooms and production office. The Avenue is an accessible, welcoming and creative environment for our high-quality arts activities and our professional theatre productions.

We opened The Avenue in 2015, made possible with a £1m grant from National Lottery Heritage Fund. Since then, we have welcome hundreds of our audience, community participants and creative artists through the doors. From our Christmas shows of classic stories like Alice in Wonderland, to our gritty history plays like Fallen in Love, no two visits to the The Avenue Theatre are ever the same!

Getting to The Avenue

Red Rose Chain, Gippeswyk Hall, Gippeswyk Avenue, Ipswich, IP2 9AF

We are located near the centre of Ipswich town, just a short walk from Ipswich train station.

Parking

We have limited free car parking at The Avenue Theatre.

Disabled spaces can be booked in advance by contacting our box office team.

There is additional on street parking nearby as well as public car parks on Ranelagh Road and at Ipswich Train Station, an easy 5 minute walk away.

Buses

Gippeswyk Avenue is served by the 12, 13 & 14 bus routes.

Trains

The Avenue is a 5 minute walk from Ipswich station, with local services and to London Liverpool Street.

Pre-show at The Avenue

Our front of house typically opens 60 minutes before a performance or event begins.

The Avenue Bar

Our cafe bar and serves a range of hot and cold drinks, a selection of snacks, and for some shows/events we also serve fresh rustic pizza – please check individual event pages for more info

You can also pre-order your interval drinks!

Access

The Avenue Theatre is purpose built, accessible studio theatre space for our diverse audiences and community participants.

The Avenue is all on one level. We have an accessible toilet in our foyer, a low level Box Office and Café Bar as well as designated Disabled Parking Spaces.

If you have any questions about any of our services, or need help arranging your visit please contact box office team on 01473 603388 or email info@redrosechain.com

Accessible seats

While most of our performances operate unreserved seating, we can reserve accessible seating and wheelchair accessible spaces in the auditorium. If you would like to make an access reservation, please contact our box office team on 01473 603388 so we can reserve you the best seating. Booking online may mean your requirements will not be fulfilled to the best of our ability.

Guide dogs

Guide dogs are very welcome throughout the building.

Hearing Loop System

We have a ‘loop’ system in the auditorium that enables your hearing aid to pick up a personally created loop by switching your hearing aid to ‘T’.

Dementia Friendly

We want to ensure The Avenue is a dementia-friendly venue. Our team have trained to become Dementia Friends and we are taking steps to improve the venue further. If you would like more information please give our box office a call on 01473 603388.

Hire our spaces

Our beautiful cultural venue offers an original and creative setting for any occasion. From wedding receptions, conferences and performances in the Theatre and lovely garden to small business events in our Tudor Meeting Rooms, we’ll make sure your event is one to remember.

We hire our spaces for: