Overview

I’d booked tickets and disabled parking For the Crown to Couture exhibition, and was really looking forward to it. Booking tickets online was really easy as was booking disabled parking on site. All the staff were lovely and helpful, but…

Transport & Parking

Finding the entrance to the disabled parking area took us about 45 minutes. It was a narrow gateway without any signage and look like pedestrian access only. It took two phone calls to Kensington Palace and much driving back and forth until we found it. One of the staff later mentioned that the postcode on the website wasn’t the same as the one that would’ve taken us to the disabled parking and that the lack of signage caused an issue whenever they had a big event.

Access

Despite really wanting to go to this exhibition, we only stayed for about 45 minutes. Whilst I appreciate that the palace is an old building access was really challenging. Again, there was no obvious signage about how to go round the exhibition. There were corridors that was so narrow I only just managed to get my power chair through. Many of the doorways had also been divided by velvet ropes to allow able-bodied people to go in one side and out the other. These needed to be moved for me to gain access. We were given conflicting advice on where to go, couldn’t find the service lift. We were advised to take and ended up, just going home.

Toilets

Staff

All the staff were really lovely but as previously mentioned, we were given conflicting directions and told that known issues re-accessibility hadn’t been addressed. A massive shout out though to the lady in the tiara room, who was really knowledgeable, funny and helpful.

Anything else you wish to tell us?

I was just really disappointed as I was so looking forward to this exhibition and it ended up just being incredibly stressful. As such we saw very little of it. I’d expect Royal palaces to really consider the layout and signage of exhibitions for all visitors.

Video