Overview

Have been to the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow many times and had lots of good visits. This particular visit stood out for the wrong reasons - but hopefully is a one-off. (Rating is for this visit only) Good variety of music and concerts, for people of all ages and interests.

Transport & Parking

No parking immediately at the venue itself, but has a multi-storey across the road. This has marked disabled bays on the ground floor. There is a height restriction to use this. There can be parking in the nearby streets, depends on your luck, it is a city centre venue. It is close to Queen Street train station, though Central isn't too far away. Also close to Buchanan Bus Station, and there will be local buses too.

Access

Using wheelchairs, it is necessary to use the North entrance on Killamont Street, which has street-level doors. The South entrance is via a big set of stairs only. Inside the North entrance, there is a small set of stairs (about 4) but they have a small individual lift to go up these. This is to the side of the stairs, there is usually a member of staff in this area to help if required. We were going to a performance in the 'New Hall' which we had to access by lift. The lift was quite small, only room for one wheelchair user and carer, which worked but meant our group had to split up then find each other at the top. In the 'New Hall' the 'disabled/wheelchair spaces' were down the sides of the hall, between the entrance door and the stage, or at the opposite side. The carer/family seats were just normal chairs, the advantage being you could move them a bit to allow for each wheelchair to get in. However, it didn't feel as equal, when looking at the usual theatre-style seats the rest of the audience had. As the performance progressed, we were then made to feel quite uncomfortable by a member of staff, who explained that as part of the show, people needed to come up and down the stairs to the stage (next to where we were sitting). We moved over as best we could, but very much felt like we were in the way, and not welcome. We were asked several times if we could perhaps move, and were also asked if we could put our bags (medical equipment) somewhere else. As we were sitting in our allocated seats/wheelchair space, perhaps this requirement to also use this area to get to the stage, hasn't fully been thought through?

Toilets

There are accessible toilets throughout the building, but we didn't use them

Staff

This was hard to score, as some of the staff were great, and I've also had good experiences previously. However, for this particular visit, I wouldn't truthfully be able to give a high score. Although I can understand the member of staff was anxious about the smooth-running of the performance, I think greater disability awareness would be useful.

Anything else you wish to tell us?

This is generally a great venue, with a wide variety of music and events. It has lots of positive accessibility facilities within the building. It could be made even better with some disability awareness training for staff.