Not even slightly wheelchair accessible
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Date of visit: October 2015
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
Bad
It's a pity to have to write such a damning review of such a wonderful place, and it's maybe understandable that such an old, and not very big house, and the attached garden, cannot be fully wheelchair-accessible. But some effort could be made to improve access without damaging or severely altering the structure and character of the place.
Disabled Access In and Around
0Zero stars. There are steps up into the house and no ramps provided, and there is no way for a wheelchair user to get up to the first and second floors. The garden is a series of sunken gardens within sunken gardens - it's beautiful, quite stunning in fact, but there are numerous small flights of stairs between the gardens so it's pretty hopeless for a wheelchair user, no ramps provided.
Parking & Transport
Bad
Don't try and park in Hampstead! The tube station has a lift, but it also has numerous steps, so it's not at all wheelchair-friendly. Golders Green station is nearby and is step-free to the platform. You could get a bus from Golders Green; or from King's Cross or Hendon Central (both totally step free), which would be a longer but easier journey. Whichever way you arrive, the approach to the house is VERY steep and you will need very strong motors or a very strong wheelchair-pusher!
Accessible Toilets
0There is a spacious gents' toilet, but it's reached by a flight of stairs. I didn't check out the ladies' toilet. Zero stars.
Staff
Bad
The staff are exceptionally highly-strung - one of them followed me round the whole time, afraid I might fall and break something - and their attitude to disability seems to be stuck somewhere in the 1970s. They are friendly when it comes to talking about the history of the house and its objects and the garden, for this they get half a star. For disability-awareness, zero.
Additional Information
Most venues allow me to take a carer free of charge, so that I am not financially penalised for being disabled and needing a carer with me. Fenton House staff had not even heard of such an idea, they found it outlandish and dismissed it brusquely: both my carer and I had to pay full price, despite clearly-stated National Trust policy here http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/article-1356394063324/
