Christmas in London

London Embankment, originally uploaded by ewheeling.

 

The wintry evenings drawn in and tonight the Oxford Street Christmas lights will be switched by Jim Carrey, the star of A Christmas Carol from 5pm – 6.30pm.

There’s a reason why they herald the Oxford Street Christmas lights – because Christmas is all about shopping and getting presents. I am afraid there’s a bit of the Ebenezer Scrooge in me and I want to say ‘humbug’ – I don’t like fighting the crowds and I don’t like shopping.

However here are a few ideas for you – either as a present or for yourselves when you have finished the shopping. An afternoon tea at one of the top restaurants known for offering the English tea at its best – with all the trappings of Christmas. Here is a choice of 4 places for you – gift vouchers are available from £23.50 per person (Mandeville).

Its interesting that all these exclusive hotels do still have  steps, which they hasten to reassure me that staff would be more than happy to assist. I have not availed myself of any of these treats yet but if I do – (hint, hint) I will be sure to give a report. All of them require reservations in advance!

Tea at the Ritz

150 Piccadilly, London W1J 9BR
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7493 8181
reservations

A formal dress code is observed in the public areas of the Hotel. Gentlemen are required to wear a jacket and tie in The Ritz Restaurant, The Palm Court and The Rivoli Bar. Jeans and sport shoes are not permitted in any of these areas. Booking in advance is strongly recommended, particularly at weekends.

At Christmas The Ritz becomes more magical than ever; a spectacular Christmas tree takes pride of place in the lobby, cascades of lights hang from the rotunda above.

Christmas Afternoon Tea

From Monday, 14th December – Thursday, 24th December 2009, Christmas Afternoon Tea will be served at 15.30, 17.30 and 19.30 (traditional afternoon tea at 11:30 and 13:30) Enjoy a special festive afternoon tea in the spectacular Palm Court on selected dates over Christmas, which will include a glass of Champagne along with our traditional choice of several varieties of tea, finely cut sandwiches, freshly baked scones, jam and clotted cream and a range of delicate pastries. Your tea will be accompanied by carol singers. Reservations must be made in advance to avoid disappointment.

£50 each but you can go to lastminute.com and its £82 for 2 people.

Access – best to go through Piccadilly entrance.

Brown’s Hotel

Brown’s Hotel, Albemarle Street, London, W1S 4BP
Tel : +44 (0)20 7493 6020
reservations

Throughout the festive season, The English Tea Room at Brown’s Hotel serves its award-winning afternoon tea accompanied by the resident pianist playing well-known Christmas carols. The festive tea includes Yule logs, mince pies, turkey sandwiches with cranberry sauce, scones and Christmas cake, plus a choice of 17 different teas. From £37 per person.

Access for wheelchair users – there is a small step to negotiate (about +2 ins or 5 cm) to get into the hotel but a ramp will be made available.

Claridge’s

Brook Street, Mayfair
London W1K 4HR
T: +44 (0)20 7629 8860
Email: reservations@claridges.co.uk

Festive Champagne Afternoon Tea (21st November – 3rd January)

The special menu will include a selection of finger sandwiches, a glass of fine champagne, freshly baked apple and raisin scones, assorted French pastries, a tea or coffee of your choice and a selection of traditional Christmas pastries. Festive Champagne Afternoon Tea is offered at £45.00 per person or £50.00 per person on all Saturdays and Sundays before Christmas, accompanied by Christmas Carols performed live by the Southend Boys Choir.

Access: Get onto pavement at corner with Davies and Brook Street and its ramped access into the main entrance.

The Mandeville Hotel

Mandeville Place
W1U 2BE, London
T: +44 (0)20 7935 5599
E-Mail: reservations@mandeville.co.uk

Renowned for its afternoon tea offerings, the Mandeville has created a Christmas Afternoon Tea that is sure to get everyone in the holiday spirit and will provide a much needed break from Christmas shopping! Choose from a sumptuous selection of treats such as devils on horseback, clementine and walnut tarts, mince pies, fruit cake, stollen and gingerbread. After tea, indulge in our festive cocktail selection in the deVigne Bar. The new Mandeville Gingerbread Martini, created exclusively for the deVigne Bar by bar manager Claudio Grisorio, is a rich and warming cocktail made with vodka, orange curaçao and honey and muddled with homemade gingerbread.

Vouchers from £23.50 per person

Access : Staff reassures that there is no problem for access for the tea room from the bar

Accessible travel or holidays for disabled people?

Today I was told there is another travel service out for disabled people. Of course I was curious and interested. It is not a question of competition as I am not so profit minded – which might not say much for my entrepreneurial spirit – but for me, I think the more the merrier, its about time disabled people had more choice.

I am more orientated to offering an informational service, Connect Culture is not geared to taking commissions from hotels or restaurants. However this new service is a customised service  tailored to your exact needs. On the one hand,  it is commendable on its intentions but the way it is offered makes me groan because the focus is still on your ‘needs’, so medical model. This customised service boasts of experts who would sort it all out for you. I am glad they have found experts who can take on the world as a destination. So much for inclusive tourism. This company also offer you dream honeymoons. I ‘ ve been told that there is such a market – especially in places like Las Vegas or in this case in a tropical island by disabled people. I question whether the disabled person – yes the CEO is disabled- has actually sampled the delights he is offering. He is relying on his team of experts (where did he find them?) to get it right for his disabled customers. Yes he knows some of the barriers that disabled people faces when they travel but has he been a traveler? Has he been a consumer of holiday destinations? I suspect not. Is he not being just a broker then? Is that wrong per se?

Entrepreneurs need all sorts of management skills, including the ability to sustain interest, stamina to continue wanting and making a success. The process isn’t easy and its no different for a disabled entrepreneur and in actual fact, there are more barriers to jump over – and its not always nice. I should and do applaud disabled entrepreneurs but why just target disabled people and label it as such.   I am fastidious I  do not want segregation, holidays for disabled people. I want holidays for everybody, disabled or non disabled to be able to have the same holiday. Inclusive holidays – it means having the widened doors, the wet rooms, level access, deaf alarms, facilities for assistance dogs, good signage built seamlesslyinto the architecture/culture so that families, lovers, friends, couples can go on holiday together.

I know Scott Rains has worked tirelessly at getting the message of inclusive/universal design accross. I consider him evangelic in his zeal – in a good way.

he writes:

The concept of Inclusive Travel is itself traveling around the world. It is leaving an infrastructure that will allow the pleasure of world discovery to generations to come. It enables generations present to do so through all stages of their lifespan. That’s the vision of Universal Design applied to tourism — Inclusive Tourism.

I am left wondering if I am a ’snob’ in the sense that I have my eye on a vision and deny the fact that disabled people need their holidays to be located in ‘holidays for disabled people’. I, myself, seek to lessen the stress for other disabled people in the 3 cities I know and love, London, Paris and Strasbourg with Connect Culture. I would not promise I can provide information on access in places I am not familiar with. (Actually if anyone wants to have a honeymoon or wedding in Las Vegas I can deliver because I have done my research there or go to Disneyland – these places have access built into them because of the good customer service in US and the ADA and I have just found the perfectly accessible hotel in Blackpool.)

What I am trying to articulate is that having a holiday means being in a different environment, culture and being able to sample, meander and get lost in a new sense. It shouldnt be focused just on your access needs – I agree that we can’t get away from our access needs but can we not segregate ourselves? I try to tell people I also help families (as I have done) and solo women travelers. The research I have done leads me gain knowledge of other information not just access – for eg. vegetarian, halal restaurants.

I look to the day when disabled people can go into any holiday booking office and book their holidays. I was extremely frustrated today because I went to book my flight and hotel with the Coop Travel Agency. I bank with the Co op and they have a card which would give me points if I use the travel agency. I did my own research for Valencia – I found out which hotel was accessible and told them which I wanted. I also said I wanted a wheelchair accessible room. To my chagrin, after I had paid, the agent now tells me the wheelchair access room is not guaranteed. Now in an inclusive world the agent should not need me to tell her that it is essential for me to have that, it would be part of her training to check that. In fact I would say it should be common sense!

accessible hotel rooms?

These past two weeks I have been to 2 different cities and stayed at 2 hotels, both these hotels are from hotel chains: the Radisson SAS, Leeds and City Hotel, Manchester.

I asked for wheelchair accessible rooms both times and got one both times – however neither of them had showers/ wet tooms that I could use. And the Radisson had quite a double bed that I could not really park my wheelchair beside the bed.

Double bed with little space on either side

and the bathroom had a shower with a ledge and glass doors which virtually made it unusable for an independent traveler because you cannot park the wheelchair to transfer to the shower seat.

boxed in shower with doors

universal adapter

The staff was quite helpful but they were not very knowledgeable. I had a dual voltage charger and stupidly left the adaptor behind and they did not seem to be able to cope with adapters other than the EU ones. Somehow in a reasonably cosmopolitan city like Leeds, is it too much to expect an universal adaptor? One of the staff actually scoured the city centre for one but could not procure one. Am I unreasonable to think they should be able to provide an adapter.

My room in Manchester was nice and spacious. The door to the room was incredibly stiff.

Spacious room

I was really surprised by the design of the bathroom. The shower was a level access shower which would be perfect had there not been a glass screen which meant that the space was restricted and transfer could be hazardous.

shower with glass screen

The sink, although it was not a pedestal sink was set so low that a wheelchair user could not use it comfortably especially with a towel rail in the way. The shelf for toiletries was more than an arms length away making it really annoying when it came to teeth brushing.

badly designed sink

I find it puzzling and wonder who they consulted in designing these so called accessible rooms. They could be so obvious to wheelchair users had they asked some of us. These are not just adapted rooms. My fellow  wheelchair traveler preferred to have a bath – he has good upper body strength and can transfer well and he did get one of those adapted rooms. But I do think it is such a waste to have these details wrong because they rendered the wet room un usable for those guests’ access needs. The wet room was made to cater for those access needs – a bit more attention to detail would have served those needs better.

In Leeds for Projecting into the Future, charger problems and access search

I went to Jo Verrent’s Projecting into the Future: Representation & Interpretation of Disability in the Visual Artst last Friday – yes I am slow again but I needed to recover from the whole experience and then prepare to go to Manchester for the Equality 2025 Public Meeting. One thing that I have to get used to is to learn to conserve my energy when I take jaunts on the train…its getting harder and harder for me to bounce back.. I went because I wanted to experience some Disability art, to see the Light Night and Simon McKeown’s Motion Disabled. And to meet up with some friends – Peter and Carol from the days when I used to live in Chapeltown.

Anyway, according to Paul Darke’s blog on the event, I’ve missed quite a bit! I miscalcalculated the time I needed to get there and then the train was delayed. I was not a happy bunny having missed lunch and then found myself waiting on a drafty platform in Birmingham waiting for the train. I was there to hear some of the artists express themselves about their art and thier motivations. I felt somewhat deflated by the fact that it was not a numerous nor as diverse as I would expect from a city like Leeds. I understand that art is very personal and certainly people use art for all sorts apart from creating something out of personal experience. One of the presenters reminded me of classes for art therapy – her talk was peppered by remarks that she found beauty in the art of these disabled people pursuing art as part of community art and how they were happy to be there. There seems to be a lack of what I consider to be an awareness of disability culture but hey, what do I know?

Later that evening was Leeds City council’s Light Night where we would go as a group to see Simon’s work projected onto to the side of Leeds City Technology College Building. However I nearly missed it…

I went to the Radisson to check in and found that I could not really access the shower inspite  of being allocated the accessible room with the roll in shower.

Never mind and then I found that while I brought my wheelchair charger, I had not replaced the adaptor on it since Strasbourg and a conversation with the hotel made it clear to me that I would not be able to go very far if I want to make it home the next day.The staff at the hotel was very accomodating and offered to go out and buy me the correct US adaptor because they did not have adaptors other than European ones. (my charger is a compact dual voltage charger)

This is always the bugbear as a disabled traveller – to remember to charge and bring the charger! and all the associated paraphernalia! So I missed  the reception (at Carriageworks, Millenium Sq)  by being at the hotel and when I did get there, the group had already set off and I didn’t know where they had gone.

So this intrepid wheelchair traveler went looking for some food. I saw the Spice Quarter Buffet in Millenium Sq I fancied that so I meandered there only to be frustrasted by not finding the access to get upstairs – no signage. Someone told me to gain access from the lift in Carriageworks but when I got to the basement I was still baffled at how to get upstairs..finally I asked someone at the bar and he asked me to wait while he clear the lift and path leading to it. It took him at lest 20 mins and when I did get up there, I was dismayed by the question if I had booked because the restaurant was full! They offered a table apart from the restaurant – I suspect it is a waiting space – and was given waiter service, the food was scrumptious!

Replete and happy, I was wandering in the Square looking at various exhibits when I saw Jo waving at me and she showed me where Simon’s work was – not far away and went with some of the others to have tea at the tea caravan ( 2 ladies from Chapel Allerton) and then to stronger drinks back at the hotel.

All in all it was a good day and slept till midday the next day to have lunch with Carol and Peter at Red Chili – a lovely Chinese restaurant within a stone’s throw away and caught an earlier train home because my meetings with 2 others did not materialise.

Strasbourg September 2009

There are many reasons to go to Strasbourg but every 2 years since 2003 there is the Freedom Drive that disabled people from all over Europe congregate for a rally to the EU Parliament in Strasbourg.

I should have blogged about it much sooner but it took me some time to catch up with myself and my schedules, work etc. Also to absorb what the impact of whole rally .

Here is ENIL (European Network on Independent Living) program and information about it. I always found the camaraderie enriching and inspiring and this year was no different.

Shaking hands with Jerzy Buzek

But there is much written about the Freedom Drive already elsewhere. I won’t go on abut it here.

I enjoyed being a guide and doing some research on Strasbourg as a destination. I wanted to see if there is public transport to go do some wine tasting in the surrounding villages – it is that time of the year – vendange. When I lived in Strasbourg, we’ve always gone in the car.Well, I didn’t have to drive but I never really did the spitting out business….

grapes on the vine

This is the information I found about access for SNCF you can call this number – 0 890 640 650 – 48 hrs in advance with details of what sort of access needs and they would sort it out. Now this number cannot be accessed except from a French line but they will, apparently, get you to the nearest accessible station and then from there accommodate you to get to your destination with accessible transport (which might be a taxi).

Accessible Taxi in Strasbourg (I spoke to the driver but have not tried his services , they do not have a website yet) Access Cible (Transport de Personnes à mobilité réduite) -+33 388771579 54, rue de Prés, 67380 LINGOLSHEIM

Some restaurants I tried out with disabled friends who were there and can recommend the food as well as the access -

Hippopotamus 40/42 rue du Vieux Marché aux Vins
67000 Strasbourg (right next to Homme de Fer)

Tél : +33 3.88.23.84.90

Good for bigger groups. Accessible WC. Good for steak dinners

Restaurant Au Pont Saint-Martin
15, Rue Moulins
67000 Strasbourg, France
Tél : +33 3 88 32 45 13‎

Needs booking for bigger groups. No accessible WC. Petite France is generally cobbley but picturesque.

L’Ancienne Douane

6 rue de la Douane, Strasbourg

Tél : +33 3 88 15 78 78

Best book for larger parties, free parking at Austerlitz,  wheelchair accessible WC. Brasserie food

Art Cafe, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art

1, place Hans Jean Arp

Tram stop Musee d’Art Moderne

Tél : +33 3 88 22 18 88

Wonderful view especially when the terrace is open. Great brunches on Sundays.

Art Cafe Terrace

Its time to think about Christmas Market in Strasbourg again.Are hotels all booked yet? I am always amazed by the fact how fast the hotels get booked up especially during parliamentary sessions.

I think the best accessible hotel is the
Hôtel Ibis Centre Gare
10 place de la Gare
67000 Strasbourg
Tél. + 33  3 88 23 98 98

This is if you need a roll in shower. It also has a spacious room. It is also in close proximity of the station and great cous cous and kebab restaurants. I stayed at the Ibis Aux Pont Couvert this time round,

Hôtel Ibis Centre ‘Aux Ponts Couverts’
7, rue de Molsheim
67000 Strasbourg

Tél. +33 (0)3 90 22 48 70

Although there is a shower, the transfer is not as easy and the room size is not so generous.

So much more to write but enough for this time.

Access in London cafes

There are cafes galore in London. Some serve better coffee than others and some serve more than coffee and most pubs now will also serve coffees. However not all of them are accessible.

Here I would like to introduce the Roundhouse Cafe The Roundhouse has been singled out as a case study for an accessible makeover – if I can call it that, by the RIBA no less (Royal Institute of British Architects). See the video on youtube – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZSJafFwIr0&feature=related And right now there is also the installation on by David Bryne: Playing the building.

However, on the other side a bit further on from Camden, in Southampton Row, I couldn’t get in to a branch of a big chain, Costa Coffee. There was one big step but there was a lovely buzzer with a wheelchair sign on but they had no ramp after doing the buzzer. My friends got in and asked for access for me (and was told that there was no access) and reported  about the nice accessible toilet inside! I am still miffed – here is a photo of me at the door   – no admission for wheelchair users.

no admittance photo by J Bowen

‘thank you for organising such an interest trip’ : connect culture’s first review!

From Judy -

Zara in front of Notre Dame

Many thanks for organising such an interesting trip to Paris for us -
and for laying on such nice weather. We were a bit apprehensive about
taking a wheelchair to a foreign city we hadn’t visited before and it
was good to know that there was someone at the end of a phone whom we
could call on at any time if an emergency arose – and that it was
someone who had personal experience of traveling with a wheelchair in Paris and some useful contacts on the ground.

Thanks to your advice we knew exactly what to expect from Eurostar,
both at home and abroad, and of course we we were royally treated on
board.

The hotel was excellent, with plenty of space in our room to move
around in. It was nice that it was within easy walking distance of the
Gare du Nord where we arrived as it would have been a bit daunting to
have had to look for bus stops straight away. Unlike some so-called
accessible rooms, ours did have a bathroom with doors wide enough to
accommodate a wheelchair. Again, it was useful that all this had been
road-tested by someone else using a wheelchair.

We got to all the places we wanted to without having to spend hours
pouring over bus maps and timetables as all the work had been done for
us beforehand. We also had good advice on how to use buses and which
ones were accessible. Thanks to your advice we also managed to get to
some places we might not otherwise have considered and enjoyed some
lovely meals in spectacular surroundings.

I would highly commend Sainte Chapelle to anyone else’s itinerary. I
was quite blown away by the beauty of it when I first went to Paris
about forty years ago – in fact it’s about the only thing I can
remember from that trip, particularly because I had never heard of it
before I visited. Unlike Notre-Dame it is amazingly accessible to
wheelchair-users considering its great age and small size – in fact we
saw bits that able-bodied people didn’t.

I’m sorry we didn’t go up the Eiffel Tower, which was entirely Zara’s
choice. Although I suffer from vertigo I’m alright as long as I can’t
throw myself over and I guess you are pretty contained up the top.
There were awfully big crowds, which I suppose is what put Zara off,
and hopefully things would be easier on a weekday rather than the sunny
Saturday we chose.

I expect Zara told you that as far as we could see all the many
falafel places in Rue des Rosiers had a step up into them. The
vegetarian Indian restaurant (Krishna-Bhavan) we found gave us our best
meal if not the most glamorous surroundings – and it was almost
certainly the cheapest – but you probably won’t get any more
vegetarians to complicate things yet further.

As regards costs, we are pleasantly surprised that a short break in Paris can be done on a low budget. People traveling on Eurostar with a wheelchair are upgraded, which means you get some nice champagne and a topnotch light meal. The journey flies past in no time at all and you can go straight into sightseeing mode once you have signed in at your hotel. It’s great that you don’t have to pay high prices to get a reasonably central and fully accessible hotel. Getting around Paris was cheap and easy on buses, of which there are many accessible ones, and it is a fairly compact city anyway.

You obviously have lots of experience which will be invaluable to other
wheelchair-users in the future. Thanks again. Judy

an extension for connect culture

I went to a national conference today - Equalities United? Pan-Equality Networks in the Third Sector at the ICCin Birmingham.

The National Equality Partnership in partnership with English Regions Equality Network (EREN) is holding its first national conference, The purpose of this event is to enable peer learning on pan-equality working (approach to equality issues bringing together the experiences and perspectives of different equalities ‘strands’ or groups of people, and addressing different forms of discrimination and abuse together) through sharing good practice and participating in focused workshops.

I went as a member of the Women Policy Forum for Women Acting In Todays Society (W.A.I.T.S), I am in the steering group.

with Marcia (WAITS) and Isabel (NEP)

A thoroughly enjoyable, thought provoking and successful sharing conference. But I was explaining to someone about Connect Culture – we started on the fact how conferences needed advice on access guidance. I suddenly had a thought that Connect Culture could have a service extension by helping people to organise and access audit conference venue and facilities!

wiki on accessible restaurants

There’s a wiki on accessible restaurants in London, Paris and Strasbourg! Lets hope people would see it as useful for them and contribute.

Well, it was Nancy Proctor who gave me the idea of doing a wiki. When I asked her in a tweet if she could note the accessibility of the restaurants she would be going to when she goes to Paris next week, she sent back: “Would you like me to tweet it, blog it, add it to a wiki??” I suddenly thought how that  was a great idea. A year ago,  Jonathan Bowen had initially got me involved and interested in wikis – I helped him do some research for a museum conference paper and here I can actually apply the knowledge to a sharing space for accessible restaurants!

I think having a wiki in this context is muchy easier to mange – information wise – than using a social networking system such as ning (as Craig Grimes does so well for his accessible travel site). maybe its the wannabe librarian in me who actually likes being able to put order into lists..who knows…we shall see if anybody else actually contribute.

Finding accessible vegetarian restaurants in Paris

One thing I know about finding information about things like food and restaurants is that there are usually people providing such information out of passion for their subject – food! Vegetarians are no different, Ted Drake of Paris Vegetarian replied to my query and said he would start noting on access in his restaurants’ guide. He also recommended these restaurantsas having level access:

Parisian Sweet Bar (12th arrondisement)
Tien Hiang (11th arrondisement) Chinese
Green Garden (13th arrondisement) East Asian
Gout Zen (13th arrondisement) East Asian

There are not near the tourist’s haunts although I would love to make a detour next time I am in Paris. Some people called these type of trips as pilgrimages!