Battersea Park

Date of visit: October 2022

I am a disabled person. I have experience of challenges around: accessing toilets and moving around.

I use or have experience of: disabled toilet

Overall Rating

Battersea Park is a lovely place to visit in all seasons and is mainly easy for wheelchair users, though the accessible toilet is very definitely the worst I have ever encountered.

Disabled Access In and Around

The many entrances to the park are step-free, most paths and road surfaces are smooth and easy for a wheelchair user. The Peace Pagoda can be approached but it's positioned on top of a set of staircases, so wheelchair users have to admire it from afar. Signage throughout the park is skimpy but just about adequate. The entrance gate to the English Garden is broken and I found it impossible to open it from my wheelchair - it hangs loose from broken hinges and needs enormous force to drag it open, and I had to rely on the help and kindness of a stranger to open it for me. This needs to be fixed.

Parking & Transport

Numerous buses serve the area immediately around the park. Battersea Park railway station is not step-free, useless for wheelchair users and anyone with mobility problems. Battersea Power Station station is part of the new Northern Line extension and is totally step-free from train to street, and is about half a mile away from the eastern edge of the park.

Accessible Toilets

0

There is a very large modern building housing toilets, and the accessible toilet in the gents' section of the building is an absolute disgrace, definitely the worse accessible toilet I have ever seen in my life. There is no lock on the door. The toilet has no seat. The toilet bowl was disgustingly filthy, smeared with excrement. There was a large bin obstructing the door. There is no red emergency cord. There was no toilet paper available. The handbasin is much too high for a wheelchair user, and positioned in a place which a wheelchair user cannot reach. This toilet is a really terrible disgrace - Wandsworth Council should be deeply ashamed. Zero stars. See my pictures below, and before you look at them, make sure you have a sick-bucket to hand.

Staff

0

I didn't encounter any staff, though I did encounter some parks police, who had obstructed one of the paths with their van. I asked them to move the van so that I could use the path. They moved it with a sort of grumpy grudging reluctance, and without any apology for the obstruction.

Additional Information

It's worth visiting Albert Bridge as part of your park visit, as it's a striking and beautiful Victorian construction, positioned at the north-east corner of the park. Make sure you've been to the toilet before you visit the park - you will not want to use the accessible toilet. Improvements needed: • The accessible toilet needs to be overhauled and made both useful and usable, it's currently nauseating and offers no privacy. • The gate to the English Garden needs to be repaired, it's currently a major obstruction to wheelchair users.

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