Access All Areas visit Churchill Theatre

Read Access All Areas' review of the improved disabled access to The Churchill Theatre in Bromley.

The Churchill Theatre had re-opened in September 2011 after being closed for several months for essential work to be carried out, which included better access for disabled visitors. Our group at St Cecilia's, Access All Areas, met with Jenny Batt, the theatre's creative learning manager, to look at the work being done.

The Circle

Firstly we looked at the new area set aside for wheelchairs at the very top of the Circle. This is accessed very easily from the ticket office area. Although this was as far away as possible from the stage it commanded a good view of the performing area but only if the wheelchair was close to the safety rail.

Ranjana, one of St Cecilia's' residents, was able to manoeuvre her wheelchair into this space without too much difficulty. The area has been made bigger and now has a very robust safety rail at the front. Also, the seats behind this area can be taken out to accommodate wheelchairs. We thought that a maximum of three chairs could use this area. We pointed out that escorts for wheelchair users should be able to sit in the same row [HH] and not in the row immediately in front. Overall we were happy with the improvements made in this area.

The Stalls

From here we were invited to see the area set aside for one wheelchair in the stalls. To get to this area is quite a trek involving two lifts and several door ways. From the stalls you have to get into an open lift to the bar area and to the disabled toilet. The open lift up is good and easy to use. Ranjana did mention that the disabled toilet could have been bigger but she felt that there was enough room inside. Once on this floor you pass through the bar to the far side of the theatre and through a quite narrow door into the lift / stairs area. The entrance to the lift is quite narrow. There is room only for one wheelchair and one able bodied person.

You will then need to descend four floors to the 'stage door' area and turn sharp left and through to the Circle area of the auditorium. The last door before the Circle has a ramp that is quite short and therefore steep and it also has a sharp lip at the bottom end which can and did cause some problems. We did recommend that a better ramp be purchased for this area. Once inside the auditorium a seat, F36, can easily be removed to accommodate the wheelchair user and their escort would be seated on seat F35.

It was pointed out that there is only one seat available for wheelchair users in the Circle but it does command excellent views of the stage. This would not be ideal if more than one wheelchair user was attending a performance - we would recommend that visitors in excess of one should use the Circle area but to remember that it is very high up.

Normally the cost of tickets in the Stalls is more expensive than those in the Circle. It is hoped that if a wheelchair user prefers a seat in the Stalls the cost would be the same as that charged in the Circle. We were also informed by Jenny that any escorts would not be charged admission when accompanying a wheelchair user.

Overall..

We were happy with the improvements made at the theatre. We found Jenny Batt to be most helpful and courteous. We all felt that our points were being taken seriously and that steps would be taken to improve the facilities if at all possible. We have to bear in mind that it is difficult to improve / change many areas of the theatre, but we, as a group, were happy with our trip to meet Jenny at the Churchill Theatre.

Barry Wooding - Volunteer at St Cecilia's Leonard Cheshire Disability home - 26 November 2011