Somerset House

This is an access review for the Horror Story exhibition which is on till 19 February 2023. The exhibition is in the Embankment Galleries so the information about the building layout and accessibility will be applicable to future exhibitions too. The exhibition was fantastic in terms of curation and content. Reviews of the exhibition are elsewhere so I'm going to focus solely on accessibility, which brought me close to tears. On what should have been my Christmas night out with my friends was it's own access Horror Story as due to layout I was separated from my non-disabled friends as I had to retrace my route through the entire ground floor of the exhibition to return to the ticket desk to be escorted to their "secret lift". In addition due to lack of any seating throughout the gallery despite having taken my maximum quota of prescribed meds prior to going into the exhibition I was in considerable amount of pain and fatigue, which spoilt a lot of the enjoyment of the exhibition and spending time with my friends. I am extremely disappointed by the lack of access and ableism. UPDATE: My complaint was replied to positively in less than a week. Things to note are they are going to review if they can reinstate the accessible parking spaces, review the access information on their website, review seating in the exhibition and already all members of the Visitor Experience team have completed Disability Confidence training. If you would like to read the email response I've included it in additional information.

I was there when the ice rink was up and you had to go inside the main building to get to the disabled toilet, but there were automated door buttons everywhere

Arriving from the Strand access was across some cobbles. Not great for a wheelchair user but worth the effort for the fantastic view.