Overview

A very cramped music/book/DVD shop, too tightly crammed for wheelchair users to have a comfortable experience. Lift to all floors but it's unreliable and difficult to get to and from. On the day I visited, the lift got stuck between the basement and the ground floor - with me inside it. Not a happy experience.

Transport & Parking

Nearby Tottenham Court Road tube station is step-free (Northern Line: street to train; Central Line; street to platform, and manual boarding ramps available), and bus routes 14, 19 and 38 will drop you outside the shop.

Access

There's level access into the shop, and once you're inside you will - if you're a wheelchair user - find it uncomfortably cramped and tight, very very hard to get around the aisles with ease. Some of the shelving units are unstable, on one visit I knocked one with my powerchair and it fell ON me, as well as tipping its contents all over the floor. I was lucky not to be injured. This is all very annoying and unhelpful. There is a platform lift to all floors. This lift is operated by holding down a button at around nipple-height if you're seated, and it takes some strength and effort to keep the button pressed. If you have any hand or arm weakness, you will find it very hard indeed to operate the lift. In addition to this difficulty, the lift sometimes gets stuck and then the door will not open. On my most recent visit, the lift broke down between the basement and the ground floor, with me inside it. I was stuck inside it for a long time. The staff tried valiantly to hand-crank the lift back to the ground floor, but without success, so they hand-cranked it to the basement, where I was then stuck for another long time until the fire-brigade were called to carry my heavy powerchair up the stairs, an astonishing feat of skill and strength. When it comes to paying, if you're paying by card, and you're a wheelchair user, you probably won't be able to use the credit-card readers, because they are fixed to a tall frame in front of the till, well out of reach, and (unlike most such devices) cannot be removed from their cradle. Wheelchair users have not been taken into account with this poor piece of design.

Toilets

This small shop is not the sort of place where you would expect to find a toilet.

Staff

The shop-floor staff are friendly and keen to be helpful. They were very apologetic about me getting stuck in the lift, and did their utmost to get me free as quickly as possible. They're a really nice team. The management, however, get fewer stars because - They have designed unstable shelving in a really cramped environment, not suitable for wheelchair users - They do not maintain a reliable lift - They make it hard to get into and out of the lift because of the product standing and lying around the near the lift, obstructing what should be a clear path to/from the lift. - They have installed credit card readers which cannot be detached from their cradles

Anything else you wish to tell us?

It's uncomfortable and stressful to shop at this Fopp. After my experience getting stuck in the lift, I will be very reluctant to go back to this branch, and I certainly won't be risking using the lift! If you're a wheelchair user, I do not recommend this branch of Fopp, unless you really like challenging obstacle courses and daredevil lift-rides with the risk of getting trapped between floors.