Overview

Generally good access, but there is no signage to the lifts, which are all hidden in dark corners; the lighting is awful throughout the shop; and the accessible toilet has some problems.

Transport & Parking

The nearest step-free tube station is Green Park: from there, go east along Piccadilly and turn left up Swallow Street. Zillions of bus routes serve Piccadilly and Regent Street. Bond Street tube station is now fully step free, as is Tottenham Court Road (except you need manual boarding ramps to be deployed by staff if you want to use the Central Line at these two stations).

Access

The entrance is smoothly step-free, floor surfaces are agreeable, there is a lovely lift, though it's quite hard to find - but when I struggled to find it, a delightful member of staff immediately took me to it, pressed the button to summon it, and even pressed the button in the lift for the floor I wanted to go to. What a sweetie! On the ground floor there is a mezzanine level reached by a small flight of steps. It was only on my second visit that I discovered that there is a good modern platform lift which allows you to reach this area, and again it was a very sweet member of staff (Dardan is his name) who directed me to this platform lift. There is no signage to this lift, it is hidden in a dark corner, and I've subtracted one star because of this inadequate signage. Many wheelchair users will never become aware of the platform lift and will imagine - as I did on my first visit - that the raised area is inaccessible to them. On one recent visit, the narrow passageway leading to this platform lift was blocked by a huge mobile clothes rack. Very thoughtless and inconsiderate of staff to use this passageway as storage space when it's required to access the platform lift. Another star knocked off for that. The lighting in the shop is absolutely terrible. I've subtracted another star because of this. Very bright lights glare directly into your eyes, which is unpleasant, uncomfortable and makes choosing clothes difficult. Many visually impaired people will find this awful lighting an insurmountable obstacle to shopping at this branch. See my photo below. The clothes racks are just about far enough apart for a wheelchair user to get through, but you will end up brushing past a lot of rather attractive clothing. Because everything is so crammed together, this shop offers unrivalled opportunities for playing hide-and-seek with your friends.

Toilets

I was really dismayed by the accessible toilet. See my photos. The approach to the toilet is a combination of an extremely dark corridor combined with glaring lights which dazzle your eyes - a really nasty, uncomfortable experience. In the toilet cubicle the lighting is very dim. The red emergency cord was tied up high and out of reach. It was not possible to activate it from below the level of the grab-rail. This is VERY dangerous and negligent. If someone falls over in the precarious transfer from wheelchair to toilet and back, and is injured and needs to summon urgent assistance, they will not be able to do so from the floor, and this could have very dangerous and serious consequences. The red emergency cord should reach all the way to the floor at all times and should NEVER be tied up or tidied away. One other small point: the accessible toilet is labelled 'Disabled toilet'. This toilet is not disabled. It is for disabled people. It should be labelled 'Accessible toilet'. This is a small point, but important because the right wording shows respect for customers. The basic layout and design of the toilet, if everything were present and correct, is good. All the problems above are caused by the stupidity and negligence of management and staff.

Staff

If the staff hadn't been so negligent about the conditions in the accessible toilet and about blocking the way to the mezzanine platform lift, I would have awarded five stars, because all the staff I encountered were sweetly helpful and friendly. But I've knocked off three stars and I'll restore them if only I find on a subsequent visit that *all* the toilet issues have been fixed.

Anything else you wish to tell us?

After my very first visit to this shop, when things were actually much worse than what I describe above, someone called Ian from Superdry contacted me, and after that some things to do with the toilet were fixed. But there is still a list of other things to fix (see below) and although I have tried to contact the same Ian again and again, he now refuses to communicate with me. This is very disappointing and has severely dented my confidence in Superdry's commitment to its customers. ** Update June 2019, two whole years later Ian has still not been in touch despite my repeated requests for him to contact me about the remaining issues listed below ** Improvements required are: - A total overhaul of the shop's lighting design. The fiercely dazzlingly glaring lights are horrible and make it difficult to choose clothes - in fact they make me want to leave the shop. - All the toilet problems I mention above need to be fixed (see my photos below) - Signage to both the main lift and to platform lifts needs to be installed

Photos