London Zoo

London Zoo has a substantial car park nearby, and can also be reached by bus quite easily. The zoo itself is very wheelchair friendly, with wide paths, and windows at a suitable height. Some of the ramps are quite steep, but otherwise I had no difficulty getting around. A few areas have low light levels to replicate the natural habitats of certain animals. Several disabled toilets are available across the park. Some of the animals are very ableist and stare at disabled people!

An extremely large site and on the whole very accessible. I travelled on public transport which worked well for me on this occasion, with just a shortish push from the bus stop to the entrance. There is street parking if you happen to be there in a car or similar. A FREE ticket is available for essential companions of disabled visitors (on the day, no pre-booking required for this free companion ticket) and reduced ticket prices are available for those on Universal Credit (documents are required as evidence), these UC tickets MUST be pre-booked. They are NOT available to purchase at the gate. There are numerous accessible toilets dotted around the site and plenty of maps displaying where they can be found. Sadly, on my visit there were a couple of the assistance lifts that were 'out of order', though I am lucky to have enough arm strength to have pushed up the slope that the lifts were there to help with. One area I struggled with (but did manage) was the Butterfly house. Once inside it is wonderful but the entrance and exit involve going through hanging rubber panels and link chains. These are there to stop the Butterflies getting out, so are essential, however, they are really difficult to get through in a wheelchair. The Terrace Restaurant servery area is nice and wide and open with lots of room, however, once you try to find a table it is very crowded and it was difficult to make my way around the tables and chairs to find an accessible table. There are plenty of alternative food stands out and around the site of the Zoo. The gift shop is also extremely crowded and limited space between the numerous gift stands (especially just before closing time for the Zoo) as everybody is heading through the gift shop on their way out. The vast expanse of the site may require some consideration in terms of energy/fatigue, it is predominantly flat but there is a steep decent and ascent under a tunnel to get to the African animals area.

I hadn’t been since I was a kid but loved it!! It’s a big site so make sure you leave plenty of time… favourite bit was seeing the penguins up close…