Overview

There is a cinema in the basement of Selfridges, Oxford Street. While on paper it looks accessible, it has not been done with the lived experience of disabled people in mind. Described on their website as being a luxury cinema, the toilets were gross. We certainly don't want to come back again.

Transport & Parking

There are lots of buses that stop outside Selfridges on Oxford Street. The nearest accessible tube is Bond Street which is a short walk away.

Access

On paper this looks good lift and accessible toilet. However, the design features are problematic. GROUND FLOOR ENTRANCE We arrived by the Duke Street entrance. The entrance doors were already opened. there was a flight of stairs to go down with a handrail on both sides. My friend used this and found the stairs very steep. LIFT I used the lift. The floor in front of the lift, the wall the lift is on and inside the lift is decorated in black and white stripes. This might look good to many but I wonder if assistance dogs trained to cross the zebra crossing will find it confusing. I think also some people who struggle with lifts and confined spaces may find it jarring. BAR AREA (BASEMENT LEVEL) The black and white flooring continues in the bar area. It is joined by circular purple lights, the levels are quite dim, and I am not sure how people with visual impairments, autism or dementia would find it. I personally found it too busy and quite jarring. There are some sofa booths with tables, see photo, and also high bar stools. CORRIDOR TO SCREENS AND TOILETS This area is poorly lit with dark walls and blue overhead lights. The corridor is carpeted, which will make it difficult for wheelchair users to wheel along. SCREEN 2 The door was open. The cinema was carpeted again making it difficult to walk/ roll on. The front row closest to the screen is the only step free seating. The chairs recline and it makes it difficult to stop it going back when I wanted to get up. There is a small fixed table and a movable pouffe, which was no good for me as it was too heigh up to get my feet on. There are steps for all the other rows, with a handrail on one side and contrasting edging on the step.

Toilets

There is one manual door into the toilet area. The door is extremely heavy and opens towards you, which I found very difficult with my crutch and would be very difficult for wheelchair users. Why if they were spending so much money on this they couldn't have made it easy for disabled people to use the toilet by installing automatic or push button doors. Once inside there are about 3-4 cubicles and one of these is the accessible toilet which is the last one. Again it is a manual door and the door was quite difficult to close. The toilet is reasonably spacious. There are plenty of grab rails and an emergency cord that reached towards the ground. However the sink was tiny and there was quite a lot of water on the floor, before I used it, so a safety hazard. As well as the difficulty of opening the doors into the toilet area was the dirtiness of the place. The accessible toilet had water and toilet paper on the floor. When I went back later the toilet was blocked full of paper even though there is an automatic flush. There were dirty bits of rubbish on top of the sanitary bin.

Staff

When asked the staff member directed me to the toilets and screen.

Anything else you wish to tell us?

The toilets are dirty. My friend spoke to staff and they told her they clean them every 20 minutes and said they often found the toilets in a state. The dirty toilets are a reflection on the behaviour of the people who use them, not the staff who are working hard. This is not what we expected from Selfridges, I can't recommend it and don't want to go back.

Photos