Hotels near BFI IMAX

The BFI IMAX stands on its own island in the middle of the Waterloo roundabout, where Waterloo Road, Stamford Street, York Road and Waterloo Bridge all converge. Bryan Avery designed the glass drum, it opened in May 1999, and the British Film Institute took operation back from Odeon Cinemas in July 2022. The screen was rebuilt that same year at 25.9 metres wide and 19.8 metres tall, making it the largest in the United Kingdom. The auditorium seats 493 people, four of those spaces for wheelchairs.

The festival programmes a handful of large-format titles here every year, and those sell out before anything at BFI Southbank does. The building also keeps a working 15/70mm projector alongside its single-laser 4K IMAX system, so if the 2026 line-up puts anything on 70mm at Waterloo, that is the ticket to chase hardest. Standard adult admission starts at £12 and children aged 14 and under from £10. BFI Members take £2.50 off each seat and avoid the £1 per ticket booking fee.

Seating is banded into Standard, Premium (central, rows L to N) and VIP (rows P and Q, wider with more legroom). On a screen 25.9 metres across the back half is genuinely better than the front, so the surcharge earns its keep. The box office opens thirty minutes before the first screening of the day, which in festival fortnight is often mid-morning rather than lunchtime.

Pro Tip: Use the pedestrian subways from Waterloo station instead of crossing at street level. They surface directly on the IMAX island in about two minutes, and on festival evenings the surface crossings around the roundabout jam solid.