Udderbelly Festival Accessibility Review

On Saturday, a group of us headed to London for my sister’s hen do. We had a fantastic time, so this week I thought I would bring you three posts inspired by Saturday’s fun! We headed to the Southbank centre to watch Closer by Circa, in circus fancy dress, & then on for dinner. So this weeks posts will be a tiger makeup post, a tiger costumer OOTD & today’s post, an Udderbelly Festival Accessibility Review.

The travelling: My sister, my 6 year old niece, my Mum, Nanna & I headed from my parents house to London Liverpool Street Station on the train. This a direct train & easy to manage. We took my crutches so I got on & off the train on those & Mum put the wheelchair on after me. From my limited experience, accessibility on trains is pretty good as long as they don’t forget to get you off at your stop. With Liverpool Street being the final stop, this would be less of an issue, but we wanted to be completely independent so managed ourselves. From Liverpool Street Station, we caught the 26 bus, which went to Waterloo Tube Station. I used my crutches to get on & off the bus. I’ve never tried getting on a bus in my wheelchair, so can’t say how easy this would be. From Waterloo it was a 5 minute walk/wheel to the Southbank Centre.

Main Entrance to the Udderbelly Festival

Accessible entrance to the Udderbelly Festival

The venue: We headed to Festival Hall to get our bearings & found the toilets. The lift from street level to the entrance was big enough for the six of us & my wheelchair & it was easy to navigate around. We then went in search of the Underbelly venue, which was not far from Festival Hall. There were two entrances to the Udderbelly venue, the front entrance had a step up to it, but the accessible entrance which was just round the corner was clearly signposted. This entrance was large & not solely for those that needed a step free access, which I really liked. Other than the theatre, the Udderbelly venue was an outdoor affair. The theatre and a number of food & drinks vendors created a square & there were tables & chairs set out so people could sit & socialise. The accessible entrance lead straight down to the centre of this square, however there was a raised section that was tricky to navigate because, although it was step free, it was at quite a sharp angle, as shown below.

Main square of the Udderbelly Festival

There were some other sections that branched off from the main square. We headed to on of these before we left as there was nowhere to sit in the main square &, though she didn’t say so, my Nanna needed to sit down. The one we headed to was essentially a room without a roof, that had a bar & was decorated in a circus theme. Unfortunately, the main part of this ‘room’ was only accessible by a step down. So I either had to get help to get up & down in my wheelchair (my legs were rather painful by this point & my knees were threatening to give way at any moment so using my crutches wasn’t an option) or be separate from the group. I went for the first option & accepted help. This is something that is unlikely to be possible in a powered wheelchair or if you don’t have someone with you who can help you. I must say that, despite this area not being ideal in terms of accessibility, the members of staff that were present were very on the ball. They noticed when I went down & came up the step & came over to offer assistance.

The theatre: The staff were fantastic. When we arrived, my Mum spoke to a member of staff at the ticket office, who sent someone round to take Mum, Nanna & me to the accessible entrance. They took really good care of my & were very friendly. With this being the first time I’ve used my wheelchair at a venue like this, I didn’t know what to expect. From the description of the woman I spoke to on the phone a few weeks before, I expected that if I’d wanted to stay in my wheelchair I would end up sat separate from the group. As a result, I’d planned to take my wheelchair to the entrance & walk a couple of steps to the nearest chair so that I could be sat with the group. To my delight, I didn’t need to do this! The theatre chairs were laid out as you would expect. There was a front row of chairs missing from one of the smaller columns of chairs & this was the wheelchair spot, with space for three users. Mum & Nanna sat on the chairs behind me & when the rest of the party came in, they sat in the column next to us, so we were still all together! At the end of the performance, a member of staff came to show myself & the other wheelchair user out, chatting away to us as they did so.

Accessible entrance to the theatre

Ramp between the Udderbelly Festival main square & the bar style ‘room’

The verdict: The majority of the venue was accessible. Staff were friendly & accommodating. Although I didn’t need any help that the group of people I was with weren’t able to help me with, I would have had no concerns asking a member of staff for assistance. There was a fantastic atmosphere both in the theatre & the outside area. I would happily go back in the future. I would be more restricted if I had my power chair to use, but I think this is going to be a recurring theme in everything I do.

Have you been to the Udderbelly Festival? How did you find the Udderbelly Festival accessibility?

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