Overview

This was a really large space that appeared really modern. It was mainly built with glass from what I could tell, tall glass walls and a glass roof made it feel really lovely inside as it was so bright from the natural light. There was a really big library here which I loved exploring. It spanned across two floors and also had information desks and a children’s library. The bottom floor had a large staircase with a lift located behind it. There were kiosks where you could borrow and return books. At the back was an area with information desks. To the left was a children’s library and to the right was a large fiction section and an area to speak to staff. Upstairs was a huge selection of books. There was a lot more fiction broken down by genre and then lots of non-fiction. They had sections for large print editions, audiobooks, languages, hobbies, information about loads of topics and even sheet music. There was also lots of seating upstairs. There were some individual desks with computers, some tables where groups could sit and some comfier seats for individual reading. It was an incredible library and I wish it was my local one! The rest of the building had lots going on too. There was a Pizza Express near the entrance, the BBC had some studios here, there was a small art gallery and the accessible toilet facilities were also really impressive.

Transport & Parking

There is an underground car park for The FORUM which has lifts to bring you up into the building. It’s open all week from 7am-midnight and vehicles can’t be left overnight. They have 12 accessible parking spaces on Level -2, eight parent and child parking spaces on Level -1 and four EV charging stations on Level -2. The charging stations require you to have your own cable. There is a maximum height of 2 metres for any vehicles and parking charges apply. The closest bus stops are 140 metres away on Theatre Street. The buses available here are: 21, 21A, 23, 23A, 24, 24A, 24B, 30, 30A. The train station is 1.2 kilometres away but it’s worth noting that there are some roads with steep inclines on the route.

Access

There are lifts into the building from the car park but if you are walking or rolling, there’s a steep incline to get up to the entrance. I struggled with the incline in my manual wheelchair. There was another way up to the entrance along the side of the building. It had a narrower ramp but it was quieter, had grab rails and also had a level section in the middle. The entrance has revolving doors in the centre of the building but there were signs for wheelchair users to use another entrance to the left which had two automatic doors that opened outwards. These were controlled by a button that was right by the doors. The flooring inside was all really smooth tiling and it was incredibly spacious. All the signage inside was really clear including the signage for the toilets. The entrance to the library was open with no doors to navigate. Once you entered the library the flooring changed from smooth tiles to carpet. The carpet was still easy to navigate in my wheelchair and I didn’t feel much resistance as I was pushing around. The shelves were a range of different heights. Most of them stopped at a height where I could still reach the top shelf from my wheelchair. Some of the shelving units that were against the walls went a bit higher and I might have needed assistance to reach some of the top shelves. There were lots of different seating set ups. Tables and chairs were located all around the library, on both floors where people could sit on their own or with a group. There were some desks with computers that had space for one or two people. There were also some comfier individual seats dotted around the first floor too. There were information points on both floors which had lowered counters. There were also self-service points that could be used, although I noticed the screen was a bit high.

Toilets

There were three accessible toilets here. One for left-side transfers, one for right-side transfers and one Changing Places Toilet. I’ve never seen toilets marked with which side transfers they have, let alone an option for both so I was blown away by that. The Changing Places Toilet was really lovely too. The signage by the toilets letting you know which type of toilets there were all had braille along the bottom of the signs too. The standard accessible toilets were still really spacious. Both of them were opened with a RADAR key and opened outwards. I went into the right-side transfer toilet and there was indeed plenty of space for a right-side transfer. The door had a horizontal grab rail on the inside to assist with closing the door from the inside. There would have also been space for someone else to be in there as well if you needed assistance. The toilet had a lid that was supported and could provide back support if someone needed to lean on it. There was a grab rail that could be raised and lowered that was mounted to the wall behind the toilet and came down into the transfer area. Another vertical grab rail was also mounted to the wall behind the toilet. Another horizontal grab rail was mounted on the wall on the other side of the toilet, below the toilet paper dispenser. The flush was operated with an automatic sensor which was on the wall behind the toilet. The emergency red cord was a different design to what I’ve seen before. The cord was a rubber cord that was about an inch thick. It meant that it wasn’t able to be tied up on itself and would also be more difficult to loop it around furniture. It was a really great design and meant that it was hanging freely to the floor. The sink was a small sink with a single tap that was manually operated (no automatic sensors). The tap had a twist mechanism to control the flow and temperature of the water. An automatic soap dispenser was mounted above the sink. An automatic paper towel dispenser was mounted on the wall to the left of the sink. Two vertical grab rails were mounted on either side of the sink too. There were two coat hooks at different heights on the wall to the left of the door and there was a bin that had a sensor so the lid opened and closed automatically. A large mirror was mounted on the wall opposite the sink. Changing Places Toilet The Changing Places Toilet was located in the same corridor as the other two accessible toilets. It was accessed with a keycard which you had to collect from the information desk in the main atrium. There was a swipepad on the wall outside which opened the door and then the door opened automatically and slid to the right. The door then closed automatically but it was controlled by a sensor which meant it did sometimes pick up people going to use the other toilets and delayed the door closing. Staff said that at busy times they can come and hold people back briefly while the door closed to stop the sensor being activated. Once the door had closed there was no lock inside and the sensor became inactive. It confused me at first but because there is only one keycard available to the public, it means that while someone is using the toilet with the keycard, it’s impossible for anyone else to access the toilet. Once the door was closed the only way to reopen the door was by pressing the large button on the inside. So it felt very secure and a clever way of managing it. The toilet was huge and decorated with a beautiful cherry blossom design. There were six coat hooks to the right of the door, three higher up and three lower down. There was a height-adjustable bench inside with paper to use on top of it located right by the head of the bench. The ceiling hoist was able to be manoeuvred around the whole room with the remote being stored in an easy-to-reach position on the wall. There were instructions on the wall by the remote about how to operate the hoist. The toilet had space for a right-side transfer and a left-side transfer with grab rails that could be raised and lowered on either side of the toilet. There were also fixed vertical grab rails next to the others. The privacy screen was mounted on one end to a wall and the other side could be pulled out to then be positioned wherever was needed. The sink was height adjustable with two vertical grab rails mounted on either side of it. It was a wide sink with a single tap that was manually operated (no automatic sensors). The tap had a long handle with a wide end which twisted to control the flow and temperature of the water. Above the sink, an automatic soap dispenser was mounted and to the left there was an automatic paper towel dispenser and hand dryer. To the left of the hand dryer was also a large mirror. There were two emergency red cords in here, one by the door and one by the toilet and both were hanging freely to the floor. There were both the standard string style cords, not the thicker rubber ones that I had seen in the other toilets.

Staff

All the staff here were really lovely, super helpful and you could really tell that accessibility had been made a priority in the design of the building and in the staff’s training.

Photos