Stunning cathedral with great access
4
4
Date of visit: September 2025
I am a disabled person. I have experience of challenges around: accessing toilets and moving around.
I use or have experience of: disabled toilet, wheelchair
Overall Rating
Good
Sheffield Cathedral is in the heart of the city and is a beautiful structure with great accessibility. Some parts of the cathedral date back to the 15th century with extensions and additional buildings added on over the centuries since. Just inside the main entrance there is a wonderful model of the cathedral showing which parts were built in which century. A large renovation project to make the cathedral more accessible and inviting took place in 2013-14. The work done then still feels very new and fresh now. The main entrance has automatic doors, and there is step-free access throughout most of the building with ramps and lifts providing access to different levels. The space feels warm, inviting, peaceful, and I really enjoyed exploring it. There is also a lovely café inside and an accessible toilet. The stained glass windows were a highlight for me, especially the colours in the tower.
Disabled Access In and Around
Good
The main entrance has a set of automatic doors that have a button to press to open them. This leads into a small area which has umbrella stands, a model of the cathedral, and steps up to the gift shop. The gift shop can be accessed without using the steps by exiting the cathedral and turning right; there is another entrance just around the corner. Another set of automatic doors then leads into the main cathedral itself. The flooring throughout is stone tiles, these were updated during the renovation work to smooth, newer stone tiles so the floor is very smooth and easy to navigate. As the main area of the cathedral didn’t have a service on, a section in the middle that had been sectioned off, and the floor had been covered with soft, colourful matting. It had been turned into an area for babies and children to play and there was even a buggy park next to it. Where the cathedral split across different levels, there were steps, ramps and lifts available. The ramps were smooth and didn’t have too steep an incline. They also had grab rails on one side, with an additional rail along the bottom of the ramp. The steps had grab rails on both sides and the lifts were often platform style lifts. The cathedral was warm and the lighting was bright and soft, not too harsh or overwhelming but it also wasn’t too dim in any areas either. It was a very peaceful location with not a lot of noise happening apart from small low level conversations and there were lots of pews to sit on throughout the cathedral. The café was quite small but had tables and chairs available to sit at. Dogs also seemed welcome in the cathedral and café, as there was a dog water bowl at the entrance of the café and a sign about dog biscuits. I didn’t see any signage or indication that a hearing loop was available or that any alternative formats were offered.
Accessible facilities: Lift to some areas, Step-free entrance, Seating at regular intervals, Step-free access to most areas
Parking & Transport
Excellent
I travelled to this place by walk or wheel
The Cathedral tram stop is roughly 40 metres away from the main entrance. From this stop, you can access all of the tram lines. The yellow services travel between Middlewood and Meadowhall. The blue services travel between Malin Bridge and Halfway. The black services travel between Cathedral and Parkgate. The purple services travel between Cathedral and Herdings Park. On the other side of the road from the tram stop, and roughly 100 metres from the Cathedral, are two bus stops: High Street (HS4) and High Street (HS5). From these stops, you can get the following services: 7a, 51, 52, 52a, 95, and SC1. Sheffield Interchange is about 700 metres from the Cathedral. There are National Express and Flixbus coaches available, as well as a large number of local Sheffield bus services including: 2, 7, 8, 9a, 18, 29, 41, 43, 44, 50, 50a, 50b, 53, 56, 57, 65, 73, 80a, 86, 95, 95a, 120, 135, 208, 216, 218, 252, 256, 257, 258, 271, 272, X3, X5, X7, X17, X54, X71, and X74. The railway station is about 1 kilometre away, with some steep inclines between the two. From here you can get trains provided by East Midlands Railway, CrossCountry, TransPennine Express and Northern Trains. These provide services towards London St Pancras, Norwich, Liverpool Lime Street, Edinburgh Waverley, York, Newcastle, Plymouth, Reading, Cleethorpes, Manchester Piccadilly, Leeds, Nottingham, Scarborough, Lincoln, Huddersfield, Doncaster, and other stations along the way. The closest car parks to the Cathedral are NCP Sheffield Campo Lane, which is 220 metres away, and NCP Sheffield Hartshead Square, which is around 270 metres away. They are both paid multi-storey car parks. Campo Lane has a total of 150 spaces, including two accessible parking spaces, and it has a height restriction of 1.88 metres. Hartshead Square has a total of 505 spaces, including seven accessible parking spaces, and a height restriction of 2.13 metres.
Accessible facilities: Public or on street parking
Accessible Toilets
Average
The accessible toilet was located through the café and also served as the baby-changing facility. It was quite a small toilet and it only had a fold out fabric table for baby-changing which I hadn’t seen before. The door to the toilet required a RADAR key to enter, and it opened outwards. There were two grab rails at different heights on the outside to open the door. Inside, there was a horizontal grab rail to close the door and a large mirror covering most of the door. The inside handle pushed up to lock the door. This could be operated with a fist or elbow. The space inside was quite limited. There was some space for a right-side transfer, but there were two bins and the hand dryer in this area, which restricted the space. A height-adjustable grab rail was available on the same side of the toilet as the transfer space, and another vertical grab rail was mounted to the wall behind the toilet. A horizontal grab rail was located on the other side of the toilet, beneath the toilet paper dispenser. The toilet had a lid that could be raised and lowered, and the toilet cistern provided some support behind the lid. The flush was a lever with a rounded end that could be used with a fist or elbow and was mounted on the cistern. It was placed on the same side as the transfer area so you did not have to reach across the toilet to use it. In front of the toilet was a small sink with a single tap. The tap was manually operated and had a short, lever-style tap, which seemed like it would be able to be operated with a fist or elbow. The tap twisted to control both the temperature and flow of the water. Above, and slightly to the left of the sink was a manual soap dispenser, and to the right was a vertical grab rail. The automatic hand dryer was on the wall opposite the sink. Another large bin was placed to the left of the sink, which really restricted the amount of space in the toilet. The emergency red cord had been looped around the height-adjustable grab rail, so I made sure to unloop it and let it hang freely. I also attached a Red Cord Card to it to avoid that happening again.
Facilities: Accessible toilet
Staff
Excellent
There were a number of volunteers in the cathedral with some that welcomed you in as soon as you arrived and made sure to let you know they were there to help. The staff in the café were also really nice and helpful, including opening the fire door on the way to the toilet.
