London Trocadero

The London Trocadero on Coventry Street is a historic West End building rather than the operating entertainment complex many visitors remember. Its rear entrance is on Shaftesbury Avenue, and the structure incorporates several earlier venues, including the London Pavilion Theatre, the New Private Subscription Theatre, the Royal Albion Theatre, the Argyll Subscription Rooms, the Eden Theatre, and the original Trocadero Restaurant. J. Lyons and Co. opened that restaurant in 1896. Its Opera Baroque interiors, Arthurian murals, grand staircase, and elaborate catering made it a model for other businesses that adopted the Trocadero name. The restaurant closed in 1965. A major redevelopment reopened the site in 1984 as a tourist-oriented combination of entertainment, cinemas, shopping, and exhibitions. The best-known phase began with SegaWorld London in 1996, when a large Sonic the Hedgehog figure appeared above the entrance and the building contained an indoor theme park. The complex also housed the Pepsi Max Drop ride and the first 3D IMAX cinema in the United Kingdom. Sega's sponsorship ended in 1999, SegaWorld became Funland, and the attractions gradually contracted before Funland closed in 2011. Later redevelopment retained the listed exterior façade while changing the interior. Picturehouse Central replaced the former Cineworld in 2015, and part of the building opened as the Zedwell Piccadilly hotel in 2020. Anyone arriving for SegaWorld or Funland should therefore understand that those attractions no longer operate.

Don't miss

• The retained Baroque exterior of the former 1896 Trocadero Restaurant
• A building assembled from several historic theatre, restaurant, and subscription-room sites
• The former home of SegaWorld London and its large Sonic the Hedgehog entrance figure
• The site of the United Kingdom's first 3D IMAX cinema
• Picturehouse Central, which opened in the complex in 2015
• The building's shift from Edwardian restaurant to late twentieth-century entertainment center and later mixed uses

Tickets & tours

Ways to visit London Trocadero

Cheapest way inLondon: City of London Walking Tour5★ · 79 travelers2-3 hoursFree cancellationFrom$13 per personSee dates →Most bookedHigh-Speed Thames River Speedboat in London5★ · 4,155 travelers~1 hourFree cancellationFrom$96 per personSee dates →Private & flexibleTransfer from Heathrow Airport to London or London to Heathrow4.9★ · 282 travelers~1 hourFree cancellationFrom$174 per personSee dates →

Getting there

Know before you go

• London Trocadero is a former entertainment complex; SegaWorld, Funland, the Drop Ride, and the original IMAX have closed.
• Part of the redeveloped building opened as the Zedwell Piccadilly hotel in 2020.
• Picturehouse Central opened in 2015 after the former Cineworld cinema closed.
• The listed exterior façade was retained even as the interior and uses changed substantially.

A bit of history

The Trocadero name ultimately refers to the 1823 Battle of Trocadero through Paris's Palais du Trocadéro. The London restaurant opened near the West End theatres in 1896 and became known for large-scale Edwardian hospitality. During the First World War it introduced a concert tea in the Empire Hall, pairing tea service with a full concert program. Cabaret later became a feature of the Grill Room, while the Long Bar had originally admitted gentlemen only. After the restaurant closed in 1965, the site was remade in 1984 as what was then the United Kingdom's largest leisure development, with 450,000 square feet of space. The redevelopment preserved the exterior Baroque façade but removed much of the interior and initially included a Guinness World Records exhibition. Nickelodeon UK broadcast live from the building from 1993 to 1995. SegaWorld opened in 1996, but lower-than-expected attendance and the loss of Sega sponsorship led to the smaller Funland operation. The IMAX and Drop Ride closed around 2000, upper floors shut in 2002, and the last Funland spaces closed in July 2011. Criterion Capital, which acquired the property in 2005, pursued a series of hotel, retail, cinema, and leisure plans. The site's history is therefore a sequence of reinventions, from grand restaurant to indoor entertainment landmark and then mixed hotel, cinema, retail, and other uses.