London venues

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Some accessible, bi/poly/kink friendly venues in central London

These are all venues that I’ve been told are accessible by people who’ve used them. I haven’t made detailed enquires about access for all of them, just asked if they had a ‘wheelchair-accessible’ room for 50 people. You'd obviously need to make more detailed enquiries about accessible parking/accessible toilets/lifts/induction loops etc, if you were pursuing any of these venues.

Conway Hall

  • Location: 25 Red Lion Square, London WC1 (nearest tube: Holborn) tel 020 7242 8032 fax 020 7242 8036
  • Contact details: http://www.conwayhall.org.uk/
  • Cost: £394 for full w/e day
  • Capacity: Lots of different rooms: Hall (with stage), lobby, two workshop rooms, downstairs. Two workshop rooms upstairs.
  • Catering: Just an urn
  • Bi/poly/kink experience? Yes - they host Kinkfest
  • Access notes: Level access to ground floor – hall, lobby, ground foloor workshop rooms. Accessible toilet. Don’t know about induction loop, or contrast etc. acoustics seem to make it quite a loud space. It’s an open space., I find it easy to get around. I don’t thik the stage is accessible if mobility impaired. Parking – one bay in square. Other disabled persons parking bays within ¼ or half mile.

Toynbee Hall

  • Location: Toynbee Hall, 28 Commercial Street, London. E1 6LS, England, UK
  • Contact details: http://www.toynbeehall.org.uk/default.asp
  • Cost: £160 for one slot
  • Capacity: not known
  • Catering: They no longer provide in house catering, however there are a number of places around this area. At Toynbee Hall side there is Arts Café which belongs to Toynbee Studios (Café number. 0207 650 2340) you will need to contact them to see if they will be able to accommodate you on the day you need.
  • Bi/poly/kink experience? Yes – Sexual Freedom Coalition conferences hosted there
  • Access notes: Wheelchair access to both halls, one accessible loo. Carparking is very limited but space can be booked for 3 cars on the day.

Dragon Hall

  • Location: 17 Stukeley Street, London WC2B 5LT
  • Contact details: http://www.dragonhall.org.uk
  • Cost: £35 an hour for activist groups
  • Capacity: Up to 200 people
  • Catering: No- bring your own.
  • Bi/poly/kink experience? Yes. 2007 BiCon taster day held here, as was the Outsiders party.
  • Access notes: Level access. Ground floor hall and kitchen. Accessible toilet (tho I had to get them to move stored stuff!). Lift to first floor, where I believe there are 1 or 2 rooms – not checked it out. Parking slightly tricky, but can find it not too far away.

The Ledger Builing

Good directions here: http://docklandsmunch.co.uk/where.htm

  • Cost: £100 standard. But they let the Docklands Munch use the room free because they got good numbers. It sounded like it would be no problem to negotiate free rooms.
  • Capacity: Each room takes 50 seated for a meal, standing 70-80. But they don't hire rooms out at weekends.
  • Catering: Yes- it’s a Wetherspoon’s pub
  • Bi/poly/kink experience? Yes- they host the Docklands Munch. Very happy to host poly events.
  • Access notes: All on one level once you get inside and has accessible loo. But three-step access. They have a 10 foot ramp which they can put out. Would need to ask more about whether this can stay out, or whether needs to be put up and down.

Yes, friend said they needed to put ramp down, but once inside all ok. Would need to talk with them re whether it could be left out for the day/duration.

London Lighthouse

  • Location:
  • Contact details:
  • Cost:
  • Capacity:
  • Catering:
  • Bi/poly/kink experience?
  • Access notes:

Penderel's Oak

  • Location: 283-288 High Holborn London WC1V 7QB
  • Contact details: (0) 20 7242 5669
  • Cost:
  • Capacity:
  • Catering:
  • Bi/poly/kink experience? Kinkfest used it for munch after the day event.
  • Access notes: Private function room is cellar bar- but uk-poly list people say the pub itself is OK- this would need checking out.

Pub ok, tho doubt we could get them to give it solely to us. Ground floor large space. Accessible toilet (NKS) no access to cellar.

Knights templar chancery lane

  • Location: 95, Chancery Lane, London, WC2A 1DT
  • Contact details: 020 7831 2660 speak to Jan or Graham.
  • Cost: £250 to hire whole pub on a Sunday 1-6. Free if they get £1500 sales.
  • Capacity: Up to 300 people
  • Catering: They do food- and if opening specially, would do a limited menu.
  • Bi/poly/kink experience? No experience, but happy to host us.
  • Access notes: They say their access is very good but I didn’t get details. Pub isn’t open on a Sunday so we’d be hiring the whole place.

Rampart centre

  • Location: 15 -17 Rampart Street, London E1 2LA (near Whitechapel, off Commercial Rd)
  • Contact details: rampart[at]mutualaid.org, 07050 618445
  • Cost:
  • Capacity:
  • Catering:
  • Bi/poly/kink experience? They host lots of radical groups, e.g. Peace News- http://therampart.wordpress.com/groups/
  • Access notes:There was a step in and then level on ground floor. I think they made a ramp for the step, but you have ot put it out as required cos onto pavement. I went a few years back to asses access prior to an event, and they were going ot knock a wall out to make an accessible toilet (we talked about what they could do), but I haven’t been back to see if it happened as planned. The upstairs is not accessible. Can’t recall parking. Not sure re sensory access.

LARC

  • Location: 62 Fieldgate Street Whitechapel E1 1ES
  • Contact details: www.larc.org, 02073779088
  • Cost:
  • Capacity:
  • Catering:
  • Bi/poly/kink experience? BiFest was once held there. A range of alternative groups meet there.
  • Access notes:Side entrance has threshold rather than the step at the front entrance. Has accessible toilet and access to ground floor space. No access to upstairs. Loree’s workshop was hosted there back in February, and there were at least 3 of us who were wch users there, using mixture of manual and power chairs, and I didn’t notice any of us encounter much difficulty.

The Resource Centre

  • Location: 356 Holloway Road London N7 6PA
  • Contact details: +44 (0)20 7700 0100
  • Cost: 1-6 pm on a Sunday £120 +VAT=£141. A large room could be booked from 10am-11pm on a Saturday for £600 (private rates), much less for voluntary sector/charities. Helen is currently trying to find out more information on this (as at 15/12/08).
  • Capacity: Lots of different rooms. http://www.theresourcecentre.org.uk/facilities.html hey have two large spaces with capacity of up to 150, one of them would be a private space for our event, but the other one is a general thoroughfare with people potentially passing through from different events to go to the loo, etc. They also have smaller spaces.
  • Catering: They have a café on weekdays. At weekends they can do tea coffee and biscuits for £1.26 a head (this will go up in Sept. 08) You can’t bring in outside caterers.
  • Bi/poly/kink experience? Haven’t experience of holding such groups but are fine to do so.
  • Access notes:Fully accessible throughout.

Conway Hall

  • Location: 25 Red Lion Square, London WC1 (nearest tube: Holborn)
  • Contact details: tel 020 7242 8032 fax 020 7242 8036 http://www.conwayhall.org.uk/
  • Cost: £394 for full w/e day, or 9-5 (£226) or 6-10 (£168)
  • Capacity: Hall (with stage), lobby, two workshop rooms, downstairs. Two workshop rooms upstairs.
  • Catering: Just an urn
  • Bi/poly/kink experience? Yes- they host Kinkfest.
  • Access notes:Level access to ground floor – hall, lobby, ground floor workshop rooms. Accessible toilet. Don’t know about induction loop, or contrast etc. acoustics seem to make it quite a loud space. It’s an open space., I find it easy to get around. I don’t think the stage is accessible if mobility impaired. Parking – one bay in square. Other disabled persons parking bays within ¼ or half mile.

Stephenson Hall

  • Location:

Stephenson Hall 85C Highbury Park, London, N5 1UD. NB, not open on weekends!

0207 3542337

  • Cost:
  • Capacity:
  • Catering:
  • Bi/poly/kink experience?
  • Access notes:

Oxford House

  • Location:
  • Contact details: 020 7739 9001
  • Cost: £45 /hr +VAT
  • Capacity: Lots of different rooms
  • Catering: On site catering
  • Bi/poly/kink experience? They host Transfabulous.
  • Access notes:Venue says they are fully accessible throughout. There might be a difficulty getting to one of the top rooms – chapel? Time limited disabled person’s parking outside – 2 bays I think. I think they might have induction loop – I can’t recall.

East London Out Project

  • Location: 56 - 60 Grove Road London E17 9BN
  • Contact details: 0208 5093898 admin@elop.org
  • Cost:
  • Capacity: Large accessible ground floor social space for 80 people, 3 upstairs workshop rooms (not accessible)
  • Catering:
  • Bi/poly/kink experience?
  • Access notes: Venue says that the ground floor is fully accessible and has an accessible toilet. This is where the large social space is, but that's all that's on that floor. The upstairs workshop rooms are not accessible.

Cafés, bars and social spaces

These are smaller venues, suitable for a social meet but not usually bookable exclusively.

Leon at Spitalfields

  • Location: 3 Crispin Place, London E1 6DW
  • Contact details: http://www.spitalfields.co.uk/eating_leon.php
  • Capacity:
  • Catering: Restaurant/café
  • Bi/poly/kink experience? Bi Coffee Meet will meet here from Saturday
  • Access notes: The venue is all on one floor. Access to the indoor restaurant is by two large sets of double doors, which are not automatic but staff will be happy to open on demand. There's also a (covered) outdoor area. The venue has a wheelchair-accessible toilet with a Radar key - another similar public toilet is 50m away just across the plaza. Spitalfields Market itself has accessibility information here: http://www.enabledlondon.com/default/5.venues/eateries/spits.htm
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