London visit help

brandoi

Hi! My wife and I are visiting London this April from the US, and the disability community is a big part of our lives at home. Wondering if anyone knows if/how we can be and feel connected to the community in London when we visit for our honeymoon (and we don't mind any tips on navigating wheelchair accessibility in London - especially with bookstores).

mokki

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/140353/london-visit-help

London is pretty accommodating with regards to wheelchair access, however I did visit a restaurant with my mum who is wheelchair dependent, the rest room however was down a lot of steps with no other access, so maybe check before hand.
also depends what part of London you will be visiting, camden and surrounding areas all have access to the centre of London, all of which are very community based and considerate as a whole.

Rachel_Scope

Hi @brandoi and welcome to the community! There's a great website all about accessibility when visiting London - Accessible London. There might be some events for the disabled community happening during your visit that you could attend. Is there anywhere in particular you'd like to visit?

Santosha12

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/140353/london-visit-help

Hi @Brandoi, welcome to the forum! I don't know if you've heard of the Snowball Community, I've not used it but it has an App for accessible shops, restaurants and attractions for London and other UK cities.

I heard of them from a TV programme here in the UK, 'Dragon's Den' which is for entrepreneurs seeking investment. I do not know if there is a charge for the App but hopefully not. It might be worth investigating for your upcoming trip. With warmest wishes to you.

brandoi

Hi everyone - thanks so much! I've done a good deal of research about accessibility in London on the Internet, this is for our honeymoon so I'm trying to make it as smooth as possible :) but of course there's a lot that just isn't there (e.g. I know the scoop at major sites like Westminster Abbey but Iess so with restaurants/stores if they don't say so themselves). I'm going to give Snowball a look!

We are staying at a hotel in the Westminster area where I know we'll have access to a lot of buses and the Victoria and Westminster accessible tube stops. We're going to do an accessible tour with londoncabtours.co.uk. We're also going to apply for the Access Card so that we can easily get access where applicable. We were able to get wheelchair accessible tickets to a couple West End shows in London at theaters with limited barriers - I spoke with the theaters to make sure we were comfortable with the situation, I know some of the theaters are a nightmare.

The biggest points of confusion are (1) motorized wheelchair use in London, as a lot of ramps appear to not support their weight, including black cabs (do UBER WAVs? does anything other than buses or tube)? and (2) bookstores - we love books but it's hard to understand accessibility. It seems like it's relatively easy to find if there's accessible entrance to places via Google Maps, but very hard to find how accessible it is inside the places, especially between floors. Sometimes there will be just one review online that may or may not be recent. Snowball seems to have some more reviews than what I've seen so it helps!

Trevor_PIP

Welcome to the UK! Hope you have an enjoyable time.

I want to walk the decks of the USN New Jersey Battleship some day...