Overview

Rude staff, gaslighting from staff, insulting and discriminatory wheelchair space provision - a really horrible experience. NOT recommended for wheelchair users.

Transport & Parking

Most piers are near public transport hubs.

Access

At most piers a wheelchair user can board a Thames Clipper boat via a steep humped ramp, which can be difficult to negotiate. On their website, Thames Clippers advertise the exact number of wheelchairs which can be accommodated on each type of boat. My attempt to travel with a wheelchair user friend on a Sun Clipper, which has space for FOUR wheelchairs, was thwarted when a very rude member of the boat's crew, called Sam, gaslighted us and told us - incorrectly, aggressively and very rudely - that his Sun Clipper could only take ONE wheelchair at a time. He insisted we take the next boat, a larger type of boat, twenty minutes later: his boat, he claimed incorrectly, was too small to accommodate us both. On the next boat, we encountered even ruder staff, who barked orders at us as if we were very small and very naughty schoolchildren. This was extremely unpleasant. The boats do not have "wheelchair spaces" at all in the normal sense. Instead, wheelchair users are made to park in the middle gangway, haphazardly, willy-nilly, among abandoned baby buggies and luggage, dumped there like a parcel, and - in the case of our journey - ordered to go there with extremely supercilious rudeness. We were NOT allowed to sit outside. We were told so with the same breathtaking rudeness. This is discriminatory: everyone else can sit outside, but not wheelchair users. It's no surprise that Thames Clippers are run by Uber, who do not have an unblemished record when it comes to anti-disabled attitudes.

Toilets

The boat we travelled on had an acceptable accessible toilet.

Staff

Zero stars for the staff we encountered. Sam, the ship's mate on the Sun Clipper which we were refused access to, gaslighted us, pretended his boat was too small for us and that he could only take one wheelchair. The Sun Clipper actually has designated space for four wheelchairs. Sam insisted we take a larger boat, and was rude, officious and abrasive, and thoroughly unpleasant. The staff on the pier, despite knowing that Sam's boat was able to accommodate four wheelchair users, colluded with him in his gaslighting. The staff on the Cyclone Clipper we eventually took were also thoroughly unpleasant, one of them barking orders at us (as remote from good customer service as you can get), and another member of the crew later came and patronisingly asked us "Do you know where you're going?" as if being wheelchair users automatically meant we must be very stupid or mentally deficient.

Anything else you wish to tell us?

The horrible attitude of the staff, the gaslighting, the insistence wheelchair users park in the middle gangway among abandoned baby buggies, luggage and other detritus, and the refusal to allow wheelchair users to sit outside on deck - all these things made our trip a thoroughly miserable and upsetting experience. I do not recommend Thames Clippers to wheelchair users and I will never travel on them again - at least not for as long as they are run by Uber - maybe attitudes will change when a different operator eventually takes over.