Reclaiming Space
4.5
4.5
Date of visit: August 2023
I have experience of challenges around: moving around
Overall Rating
Excellent
This unexpected gem is a restaurant and bar located inside the Red Brick Building in Glastonbury. The building was formerly a sheepskin factory and is now a community based social enterprise hosting lots of fantastic live events, classes and workshops and a community garden and leases space to different tenants. We wandered into the restaurant at a busy time when they probably wouldn’t have been serving coffee and cake, but they managed to provide some delicious Victoria Sponge and a hazelnut flapjack along with a lovely pomegranate and green tea juice. The staff were really accommodating and led us to our table on the terrace which looked out onto the garden and farmland below. Somehow, the juxtaposition of natural beauty and the old industrial age factory buildings worked really well and emphasised their effort to reclaim the space. I haven’t attended any events but I have been told that the night-time events such as live music and comedy nights are well worth going to.
Disabled Access In and Around
Good
Access was good with a small entrance lip ramped and another ramp going into other areas of the building. The entrance doors were manual but wide and there was plenty of room to manoeuvre inside the restaurant and on the terrace itself.
Parking & Transport
Good
There is parking available on-site including 3 disabled parking spaces near the door to the entrance of the building. Some parts of the road leading up the venue are a bit uneven so care would need to be taken there. The venue is situated on the edge of Glastonbury between Glastonbury and Street but there is a bus service which stops just outside on the main road. There is no train station.
Accessible Toilets
Excellent
The accessible toilet was also the ladies and was really clean, spacious and had grab rails and a red cord within easy reach. I was also really impressed with the way they had made an effort to decorate the toilet in the same industrial style along with greenery and wooden boxes. Normally, disabled toilets are basic at best and I loved the way that they had made an effort to carry the ethos of the building into the disabled toilets, it was really inclusive; a small thing that means a lot and makes you feel genuinely welcomed and part of the space. If they had had a changing places bench and hoist, I would have given 5 stars.
Staff
Excellent
Staff were fantastic, we visited at a clearly busy time just before dinner service when most wouldn’t be serving coffee and cake but they went out of their way to make us feel welcome.
Additional Information
This venue is definitely worth a visit if you are in Glastonbury; we would have visited before but as there are some derelict factory buildings around the area, we weren’t really sure if it would be accessible to the public but it’s amazing and we’re definitely getting up earlier to go along for breakfast next time.
