National Theatre

The Royal National Theatre sits on the South Bank of the Thames just south of Waterloo Bridge, and with its three stages - the Olivier, Lyttelton and Dorfman - it is Britain's most important publicly funded theatre. Denys Lasdun designed the raw-concrete brutalist complex, which opened in 1976 after the company - founded in 1963 under Laurence Olivier - had played at the Old Vic. Prince Charles famously compared the building in 1988 to a nuclear power station in the middle of London, while Lasdun himself read the cascading terraces as a fourth, public stage. Visitors reach the Thames walkway directly via the outdoor staircases, hear pre-show live music in the foyer and can join backstage tours that reveal the drum-revolve stage and the on-site workshops.