Empress Museum, London

The Empress Museum is a 707-seat Big Top at Empress Place, SW6 1TT, five minutes from West Brompton in Earls Court. Come Alive! The Greatest Showman Circus Spectacular has played here since September 2024.

Choosing seats? The seating is in the round, in four banks named by colour, so there is no back of the Big Top in the usual sense. The back rows are genuinely good seats, because the aerial acts happen above the ring and you see them better from further away. Ringside row A is closest, has the most legroom and costs the most.

Already booked? One thing to know before you go. The performers work the crowd all evening, and if you would rather they left you alone, ask front of house for a sticker and they will.

The four banks and which rows suit what are on the seating plan. After that come how to get here, access, food and drink, restaurants, pubs and hotels nearby and more about the building.

Quick facts

  • Address: Empress Place, London SW6 1TT
  • Nearest tube: West Brompton, about 5 minutes
  • Capacity: 707
  • Seating: four banks in the round, Yellow, Purple, Blue and Empress, rows A to L on one tier
  • Doors: 1 hour before the show, for the pre-show
  • Run by: Outside the Box Amusements and TSG Entertainment

What's On at the Empress Museum

Come Alive! The Greatest Showman Circus Spectacular is booking to 29 August 2027. That is how far ahead tickets are on sale, not a closing date. It's a circus built around the songs from the film: aerial acts, live music and a new story, played in the ring with the audience on all four sides.

Doors open an hour before, onto an interactive pre-show with close-up performers, characters, food and drink. The seated show that follows runs about 100 minutes including the interval.

Evening shows start at 7:30pm from Wednesday to Saturday, with 2:30pm matinees from Friday to Sunday. There's no show on Monday or Tuesday, and times can differ over October half term and Christmas. Age guidance is 5 and over.

Ticket prices

Standard tickets run from around £50 up to about £200. Ringside is the top of the standard range, and the Empress bank is sold as a VIP package rather than a seat price.

At most West End theatres a Saturday costs meaningfully more than a midweek night. Not here: every day of the week is priced the same. What moves the price is where you sit, and peak weeks, which run a little dearer. Outside those, the day should not decide when you come.

All-in pricing, the price you see is what you pay.

Book Empress Museum tickets

All-in pricing, the price you see is what you pay.

Empress Museum FAQs

What actually is the Empress Museum?

A Big Top inside a real building, and not a museum you can visit. The Empress Museum is one of the survivors of the old Earls Court Exhibition Centre site, and it has been an exhibition space and, most recently, the BBC Earth Experience. It was converted for Come Alive! in 2024, and the seating you book from was put in for this show.

Is Come Alive! the same show as The Greatest Showman musical?

They are two different shows based on the same film. Come Alive! is the circus version, here at Earls Court: aerial acts, live music and the film's songs in a Big Top, with an hour of pre-show before you sit down. The Greatest Showman musical is a new stage musical opening at Theatre Royal Drury Lane in spring 2027, telling the film's story in a traditional theatre with new songs alongside the old ones.

How many seats does the Empress Museum have?

  1. Yellow is the biggest bank with 210, Purple and Blue have 168 apiece, and the VIP Empress bank has 161, all on one tier from ringside row A back to row L.

Is it suitable for children?

Age guidance is 5 and over. Under-5s are not admitted at all, including babes in arms, and that is firmly enforced. Under-18s need an adult with them.

Can I bring food and drink in?

No. Nothing bought elsewhere comes in, and the prohibited list includes plastic water bottles and bottle tops as well as glass and alcohol, which catches people out. The Empress Diner and the bars are inside, and eating there before the show is the intended way round.

Can I book by phone?

Yes. Call us on 020 7193 9050 and we'll tell you what's free on your date, which bank and row suit your group, and what the gap between two prices gets you. The price we tell you is the price you pay.