UK - Salisbury Cathedral

Date January 2009

Country UK

County Wiltshire

City/Town/Area Salisbury

Location Cathedral

URL http://www.salisburycathedral.org.uk/

Notes

An unashamed promotion of my home-town this entry! I live and work in Salisbury and since moving here a few years ago I have visited many (though not all) of the places of interest in and around the city. However the cathedral (with the tallest spire in Europe) is an impressive place to visit be your reasons secular or sacred, and the well-known subject of John Constable’s famous painting.

Salisbury is a medieval city and the Cathedral is just over 750 years old. Set in the Close – a walled area closed from late evening until early morning and containing a number of notable houses, most of which are not open to the public and a leading school.


Accessibility
The Cathedral is flat access into the whole ground floor area including (via a short ramp) the choir area. The shop, restaurant and cloisters and the chapter house (where there is one of the few remaining copies of the Magna Carter) are also flat access.


The view of the Cathedral commonly known from Constable’s work is also accessible via the good quality path from Mill Road SSW to Harnham village where it passes the Old George Inn (good views, old pub, nice food and beer and a restaurant. This is reasonably accessible especially the restaurant for a manual or small electric wheelchair, though not for a large electric wheelchair or scooter.

Parking
Parking anywhere in Salisbury is a bit of a nightmare, but then in the 13th Century when it was mainly laid out on its present plan, that was not a consideration. There is limited parking in the Close for people with Blue disabled parking badges (see my blog entry on Parking and travel). Alternatively there is a large public car park 400 metres away.

Toilets
There are wheelchair accessible toilets in the restaurant and in the cloisters. Both would take a small electric wheelchair or a manual one but netiehr would accommodate a very large electric wheelchair or scooter.


Accommodation
I live here however, there are a number of hotels in Salisbury many have some accessible rooms.

Other/General
There is a trip up to the spire and into the roof of the cathedral but it is not accessible and one needs to be pretty fit to do the tour. It is however very worthwhile if you can manage it.


There are a lot of first-rate music events at the Cathedral and they do make provision for people with wheelchairs. Unfortunately for the very popular events (like the candle-lit Advent services) the area reserved for wheelchair users and their companions does not have the best of views and the ushers at these events tend to be elderly volunteers who may not fully understand your needs.

It is therefore worthwhile getting there early for any events and also checking before the event with the cathedral or whoever is selling the tickets about seating arrangements.


My Overall Accessibility Rating
9 out of a possible 10