Overview

Excellent step-free access, superb support from staff, and a hearing loop that works! Top marks all round!

Transport & Parking

The nearest step-free station is Tottenham Court Road (½ mile away), and Green Park Station (0.8 miles away) is also fully step-free. Zillions of buses serve the adjacent areas - Strand, Trafalgar Square and Charing Cross Road. There is a multi-storey car park in Brewer Street (½ mile away).

Access

The front entrance to the theatre has a step-free ramped section which is really easy to negotiate, not steep. The box office counter is at a level low enough to be easy for wheelchair users to use. There is a lift to upper floors. Step-free access is made easy throughout the theatre. For anyone needing any sort of assistance, there are dedicated assistance staff on hand, who bend over backwards to be informative and helpful. The induction loop is modern and works really well. Top marks all round.

Toilets

The one accessible toilet I used was modern and well laid out, except for the inevitable big rubbish bins placed in the wheelchair transfer area adjacent to the toilet bowl. This space adjacent to the toilet bowl is emphatically NOT free space for bins and other paraphernalia. It is the space where a wheelchair user parks to transfer (sideways) to the toilet. The bin placement needs to be sorted out to free up this space.

Staff

All the staff we met were extremely helpful, kind, friendly and conscientious. They made our visit happy. There was a small issue with Box Office staff not really understanding how wheelchair users actually live - see below - they need some training in this. Apart from this minor failing, the Box Office staff are charm itself.

Anything else you wish to tell us?

Going to a performance at the Coliseum was a great joy, because accessibility has been thought through, and implemented, with such thorough conscientiousness. I will definitely attend performances here again, with great confidence. Two areas for improvement: (1) Remove the rubbish bins from the wheelchair transfer area in accessible toilets! (2) Box office staff, when taking bookings, must realise that many wheelchair users travel, and attend events, independently and without carers. They must stop making the assumption that when, for example, someone asks to book two wheelchair spaces, this must automatically mean FOUR places, because of a patronising assumption that a wheelchair user couldn't possible venture out without a carer in attendance. A little bit of disability awareness training is needed here.

Photos