No welcome for wheelchair users at the Skylark Café
Visit date:
This review is especially helpful for those who have or use the following: Wheelchair, Powerchair, Mobility Scooter
Overview
There is no entrance where it is easy for most wheelchair users to get in or out. There is no accessible toilet. Not recommended for wheelchair users unless you're a manual wheelchair user with the ability to bounce energetically over big hump-steps.
Transport & Parking
Parking in this area is severely limited. A few bus routes pass nearby. Clapham Junction station is 1.2 miles away and is fully step-free.
Access
The main entrance to the café has a tall hump across the threshold which I was unable to get over in my powerchair. A very strong and agile manual wheelchair user might be willing to risk it, but I wouldn't recommend it. At the back of the café the enormous French windows are open in summer, and you could try entering there, but they too have a tall hump across the threshold, causing exactly the same type of obstruction. I got stuck on it, straddled, one wheel spinning in the air, and had to back down and give up trying. If I had persevered, I believe I would have damaged my powerchair. Essentially this café is not step free, is not accessible to wheelchair users, and no thought has been given to providing access (or toilet - see below) for wheelchair users.
Toilets
There is no accessible toilet.
Staff
I spoke to one member of staff. She was vague, didn't understand how the humps at the entrances could be an obstruction, and didn't take my comments at all seriously. She was also unapologetic, over-casual, about the lack of accessible toilet provision. Not impressed at all.
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