Interesting exhibit, hit and miss accessibility
4
4
Date of visit: November 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
WORLD Museum is located close to Liverpool Lime Street Railway station and has a really wide range of exhibits and is free to enter. When I visited there was an aquarium, a bug house, an Ancient Egypt exhibit, a World Cultures exhibit and a space exhibit. There were some additional areas that required you to purchase a ticket, such as the Planetarium. There was a Changing Places toilet available in the museum, in addition to a few accessible toilets. I found I was able to navigate the museum well in my wheelchair; there were lifts and ramps available. I did have one lift that I couldn’t use; it was a platform lift and the door on the other level hadn’t been closed so it wouldn’t rise up to meet me. I was disappointed about this as it stopped me from seeing the space exhibit which I was most looking forward to. I found that there weren’t many alternative formats in use which was disappointing. I also didn’t like the Bug House as the habitats seemed very small and some seemed quite dirty to me and it seemed a bit cruel.
Disabled Access In and Around
The entrance to the museum was located on a road that had a bit of an incline. My wheelchair and power attachment were able to manage it for the most part, but it was quite steep, especially towards the top of the road. Some of the streets around the station also have some very old, bumpy cobbles. The main entrance had a revolving door and additional automatic sliding doors on either side of it. Inside the entrance there was a cloakroom with lockers for hire and a buggy park, an information desk, a café, and a shop. There were also two lifts that travelled up to all the floors with the exhibits. According to the museum’s website they have some wheelchairs that are available to be hired from the information desk. They also say they can provide companion tickets for the Planetarium, which can accommodate two wheelchairs at a time; you need to call their Box Office to arrange this. They offer relaxed sessions at the museum for those that feel more comfortable, but they make a point to say that the museum is accessible to all at any time. They also confirm they welcome assistance animals and can provide bowls of water. I didn’t see many alternative formats around the museum. Although I may have missed them, I didn’t see any tactile displays or any Braille provided, apart from on the lift buttons. I saw some captions on some of the video exhibits, but it didn’t seem to be consistent throughout the museum. There were some hearing loop symbols at some of the audio exhibits too. I found that the signage around the museum was quite good; it was easy to find accessible toilets and the exhibits were all clearly signposted. There were also signs inside the lifts with details of what was on each floor. The lifts also had grab rails inside them and tactile buttons with Braille. There were also grab rails on any stairs or ramped sections. There was a platform lift on the top floor which provided access to the Space exhibit and the Planetarium. I’d been looking forward to the Space exhibit, but when I got there, the door on the other level had been left open and clearly didn’t shut by itself. The lift wouldn’t operate with the door left open, so I wasn’t able to use this lift or see that part of the museum. Some areas of the museum were really dimly lit, for example: parts of the aquarium, the entrance to the bug house and certain areas within the larger exhibits. I felt that some of these were too dark and were actually a bit difficult to navigate comfortably. I also felt that there weren't enough seating options in some parts of the museum. I sometimes travelled quite a long distance between spots to sit down, especially in some of the larger exhibits.
Parking & Transport
I travelled to this place by walk or wheel
The museum is about 350-400 metres away from Liverpool Lime Street station which includes services from East Midlands Railway, TransPennine Express, London Northwestern Railway, Northern, Avanti West Coast, and Transport for Wales and is also part of the Wirral Line on the Metro. According to the museum’s website, there are pay and display parking spaces outside the museum on William Brown Street and some more behind the museum on Hunter Street. There are also supposed to be some accessible parking spaces on William Brown Street. I didn’t see these spaces, partly because there was a Christmas market on when I visited which had shut some of the roads by the museum. There is a bus stop just outside the station but this didn’t seem to be in use due to the Christmas market. The museum is about 900 metres - 1 kilometre away from the Queen Square Bus Station where there are lots of buses and coaches available. There is also a bus stop outside Lime Street station, on Lime Street, where you can get the buses 10A, 14A, 14C and 17.
Accessible facilities: Public or on street parking
Accessible Toilets
Excellent
There were accessible toilets on most floors of the museum, and they were well signposted. Some of the accessible toilets also provided baby-changing facilities. The accessible toilets didn’t require a RADAR key to get into them, and the doors all opened outwards. They all seemed to have a cushioned backrest behind each toilet, grab rails around the toilet, including a height-adjustable one, a standard lever flush, a small sink, a hand dryer, and a paper towel dispenser. They varied in size, and I found that there was often a large bin obstructing some, or all, of the transfer space in them. I was pleased to see that, for the most part, all the red emergency cords hung freely to the floor. There was a Changing Places toilet on the first floor which was accessed via a RADAR key. If you didn’t have a RADAR key with you, you can get one from the information desk. The door opened outwards and then the handle rotated upwards to lock the door. This was a large Changing Places toilet with lots of room inside. Inside the Changing Places toilet was a height-adjustable bench, a ceiling hoist, a privacy screen, a Closomat toilet, and a height-adjustable sink. There were two coat hooks at different heights just by the door. The height-adjustable bench was located opposite the door to the toilet and had a safety rail on the outside. The remote was docked on the wall behind the bench, and there was a sign with information and instructions on the wall and the maximum safe working weight, which was 200kg. The ceiling hoist was to the right as you came through the door, and the remote had been looped onto one of the hoist’s arms which had been left high up. You’d need to be able to stand to reach it. There was a privacy screen that had been left just beneath the hoist, and this could be unfolded and moved around the room as needed. Behind the privacy screen there was another sign with information and instructions on the wall. The safe working weight for the hoist was also 200kg. The Closomat toilet was on the left-hand side as you entered the toilet. It had height-adjustable grab rails on either side, and vertical grab rails next to them as well. On the left of the toilet was a small shelf which was quite low down. There was transfer space on either side of the toilet; however, a large bin had been left in the space for a right-side transfer. The toilet had elbow buttons on either side of it which operated the flush and triggered the automatic wash and dry system. There was a sign on the wall behind the toilet which explained how that worked. The height-adjustable sink was in the far left corner of the room. It was a wide, shallow sink with a single tap in the centre. The tap was manually operated and had a long handle with a flat end which seemed like it could be operated with a fist or elbow. The tap twisted to control the temperature of the water and lifted to control the flow. There was a lever on the right-hand side of the sink which adjusted the height of the sink. There was a sign on the wall to the left which explained how to adjust the height and highlighted the safe working weight of 100kg. There was a vertical grab rail on either side of the sink, and a mirror was mounted to the wall above it. To the left of the sink was a manual soap dispenser, and to the left of that was a paper towel dispenser. On the right of the sink was an automatic hand dryer. There were two red emergency cords in the toilet which were both hanging freely to the floor. One was next to the toilet, and the other was between the hoist and the door.
Facilities: Closomat toilet, Accessible toilet, Changing Places toilet
