A great pub for wheelchair users - recommended
4.5
4.5
Date of visit: June 2016
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
Excellent
I recommend this pub strongly for wheelchair users. Apart from two great annoyances with the accessible toilet, everything is just right.
Disabled Access In and Around
Excellent
All areas are step-free and fully accessible. Full marks.
Parking & Transport
Excellent
Denmark Hill London-Overground station is nearby and is fully step-free, and several bus routes serve the area too. The pub has a car park.
Accessible Toilets
Average
There is an accessible toilet, the door is unlocked with a RADAR key. If you don't have a RADAR key, the bar staff have one. There were two great annoyances with this toilet. (1) The red emergency cord had been tied up in a complex way around a raised grabrail (see my photo). This is very silly and thoughtless. The red emergency cord must hang freely all the way to the floor at all times so that it can be reached by anyone who falls over in the often precarious transfer from wheelchair to toilet & back. (2) There was an ENORMOUS bin in the way so there wasn't room to turn: VERY annoying.
Staff
Good
The bar staff were all helpful and friendly. One star is lost because one of them asked my friend whether I had a RADAR key, while she was standing nearer to me than to him. She must have presumed that because I'm using a wheelchair I must be unable to speak for myself. Maybe she would benefit from some disability awareness training.
Additional Information
Three improvements would make this a straight five-star review: (1) Ensure that the red emergency cord in the accessible toilet hangs free at all times (2) Procure a much smaller bin for the accessible toilet so that wheelchair users can turn and manoeuvre freely in the already rather confined space. (3) Train staff to talk directly to wheelchair users if they want to ask them a question, rather than asking the wheelchair users' friends.
