After a £1.5 million refurbishment less than 25 years ago, you’d hope this city venue would be up to scratch on accessibility. Is it or does it miss the mark? I’ll tell you everything!
BOOKING
Accessible event booking is made via AXS online, or you can call the box office.
From the event page on the York Barbican website, the ‘Buy Tickets’ link transfers you to AXS. As with all bookings on the AXS system, you select what type of tickets you want to buy before seat options are shown. You can choose either accessible tickets for wheelchair users or accessible tickets for ambulant customers. You do not need to register as an access customer, but after you purchase accessible tickets, you will be asked to provide proof of eligibility to AXS.
Wheelchair spaces are located on Balcony Level in the ‘slips’ and in Stalls on either row A or AA, whichever is the front row for your chosen event.
Level-access seating is located on Balcony row A and Stalls rows A, AA, and BB (where rows AA and BB are present). Rows B and above on both Stalls and Balcony involve two shallow steps.
Ticket upgrades are available; however, not all options are suitable for access customers.
The Gateway+ Premium Experience includes your seat, but looking online (although unclear), it does not include accessible seats.
The Clifford’s Lounge Experience is an upgrade for which you must already have a valid ticket. This experience includes arrival at the Premium Box Office entrance (where access customers enter anyway!) with access to the exclusive Clifford’s Lounge, a complimentary drink in The Clifford’s Lounge, access to the private bar and Clifford’s Lounge during the interval, experienced and attentive staff, a (for most events) a complimentary cloakroom. Clifford’s lounge is on the ground floor, so it has step-free access. Upgrades are £25 per person.
I booked the stalls seating Row AA seats 31 and 32 for this event. This side of the auditorium is closer to the accessible toilet.
The tickets are eTickets delivered to your AXS account. The QR code refreshes every 60 seconds, so it cannot be screenshot or saved to a mobile wallet.
The ticket page also has a button to click for event information. This page tells you the door opening times, gives you a map of how to find the venue, and links to the event page on the Barbican’s website for the full event timings.
On the evening of the event, the Barbican also posted on Instagram to advertise the Clifford Lounge upgrades for the event.
LOCATION AND GETTING THERE
The Barbican is in the city of York, just outside the city walls and only a short distance from the banks of the River Ouse.
Although York is an ancient city with many pedestrian areas, parking is easy if you’re willing to drive into the city.
Most council-run car parks in the city have designated disabled bays for easy access; Blue Badge holders can park in any of the car parks, free of charge (within opening hours), in either a disabled or standard bay.
Blue Badge holders can park in on-street ‘pay and display’ bays free of charge and with no time limit during normal ‘pay and display’ hours.
There are signs in the car parks with information about local accessible toilets and Changing Places facilities.
The roads around the venue get very busy, but there are three pedestrian crossings not far from the entrance to get you across the road safely.
When visiting the Barbican, I usually try to park at Castle Car Park at the foot of Clifford’s Tower. The park has 30 accessible bays, but it gets swamped as it’s close to several tourist attractions and a short distance from the city’s centre. The St. George’s Playing Field car park is closer to the Barbican, but this park only has six accessible bays. It’s also further from the city centre if you plan on going for something to eat or shop.
Q Park has 2 locations in York - Barbican and Shambles, just 1 and 7 minutes’ walk or roll from the Barbican. Collectively, the two parks only have seven accessible bays. The parks are both open 24/7 and charges start at £2.00 per hour.
The York Park and Ride system has two routes with stops within a few minutes of the Barbican - 59 Poppleton Bar and 3 Askham Bar. A third service - 7 Designer Outlet - has stops very close to the Barbican. All buses are wheelchair accessible. However, I don’t tend to use the P&R very often, as you are unable to leave your car overnight in the car parks, and the last buses are between 6.30pm and 10.30pm (times differ per route), so getting a bus back after an evening event isn’t doable. It’s an excellent option for matinee performances or if you’re just visiting for the day, but not much use to the evening economy.
Other bus services are available in the York area, so it’s always worth checking if there’s an option that works for you.
York railway station, a stop on the LNER East Coast Main Line, is within a 25-minute walk or roll away. It has good links to stations across the UK, served by CrossCountry, TransPennine Express, LNER, EMR, Grand Central, and Northern trains.
Being such a popular tourist destination, there are many hotel options in and around the city. However, prices are often very high, and accessible room options can be limited.
In the city, you’re spoilt for choice for food and drink options. Being such a historic city, lots of buildings have access issues, and cobbled streets are very difficult to navigate. If you plan on exploring the city, it’s well worth researching beforehand.
The city gets extremely busy on sunny days, weekends, and race days. Add to that the stag and hen parties, school trips, and overseas tourists, and you’ll be thankful for booking a table in advance or having a backup plan.
GETTING IN
The area in front of the Barbican, the piazza, is paved. The slabs are well laid and even. All doors into the venue are step-free. Across the front of the rounded facade of the main entrance are four double doors. Each set of doors has a security arch to pass through and a table for bag searches. When facing the main doors, the building juts out to your left-hand side, which is the box office, with additional doors. These doors are the entrance for VIP and hospitality ticket holders, and access customers. No signage suggests this is the case; however, as we approached the main doors to join the queue, a security team member directed us to the additional entrance.
Staff at the door had security scanning wands and quickly checked our bags, but there were no queues, and we got in quickly. From here, follow around to your right, and you’ll join the main foyer area, near the main doors, where everyone else is coming in.
FACILITIES
Following the shape of the exterior of the building, the foyer area is semi-circular.
Directly opposite the main doors is the bar. The merch desk is opposite the bar, backing onto the piazza and tucked under the stairs. Following the wall line from each side of the bar, you’ll come to the ladies’ toilets on the right, the accessible toilet and the gents on the left. Moving further out to the extremities of the foyer, a corridor at each end leads into the auditorium.
The bar is quite long and has a lowered section at the left-hand side. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get served there as it was being used for the free tap water dispenser. The bar stocks a wide selection of drinks and snacks. Soft drinks are served in large paper cups with plastic lids, and other beverages are served in single-use plastic cups.
A zigzag system manages the queue.
There is no seating around the foyer area. Although the door opening time was shown as 6.30pm, the doors into the auditorium didn’t open until 7pm, so if you arrive early, there is nowhere to sit.
There are some shelves on the walls and around the support pillars to pop your drink on, which I could reach from my wheelchair.
The accessible toilet in the foyer does not require a radar key and doubles up as a baby changing facility. The placement is convenient if you are sitting on the left-hand side of the auditorium, as you only have to wheel out into the foyer and you’re there. If you are seated at the opposite side of the auditorium, you either need to wheel right along the front of the stage and out into the foyer near the toilet or out into your side of the foyer, then right across the foyer to the toilet.
I found that many ladies coming out of the left-hand side of the auditorium find it quicker and easier to just pop into the accessible toilet rather than walk all the way across the foyer, meaning I had to queue each time I went to the toilet!
The merchandise was being sold from a counter under one of the sets of stairs. Many of the items for sale were pinned on the wall behind the staff so you could see them, but the counter also had glass panels to display the items at a height that I could easily see.
There is a lift to access the balcony and slips, an additional bar and an additional accessible toilet upstairs.
SEATING
There are two doors into the auditorium from the foyer, one on each side.
From Door 1, we followed a short passageway into the auditorium and emerged at the front corner of the stage.
Our seats were Row AA seats 31 and 32. Rows B onwards are up small steps leading up to the bottom of the balcony and out into the upper foyer bar and toilets. Row A is step-free on the floor. Rows AA and BB are added at the front of the floor for some events. As we were in the side section, there was only a Row AA, whereas Row BB was added to the central section.
AA and BB seats fold down and are not fixed to the floor. Individual seats at the end of rows are removed to allow wheelchairs to wheel in.
To my right was a set of stairs leading up to the other rows of seating, mirrored on the other side. The top of each set of stairs has access to the upper floor foyer and toilets. Most people were coming down the stairs to get back into the foyer for the bar and toilets, so we had a constant stream of people backwards and forwards past us all evening. As the evening wore on and people began showing the signs of alcohol consumption, I was getting knocked, bumped into and almost had a drink spilt on me. I can see how it would be advantageous to sit in the central block as you’ll only have the people sitting next to you wanting to be past.
Our view of the stage was great. Although we were out to one side, we could still see all of it. It was fairly low, so I didn’t feel like I needed to strain looking upwards. There were no security barriers or fencing, either.
Being at the front, you’d expect an uninterrupted view. This was the case for most of the show. The odd person would stop for a selfie at the front on their way to the toilet, and one person got moved by security staff after leaving their seat several rows back and standing at the front, filming.
By the last 2 or 3 songs, it was a free-for-all with many people moving to the edge of the stage and knowingly standing in front of wheelchair and mobility scooter users. I managed to squeeze my way towards the front, but even then, people in front of me who could see that I couldn’t see past them continued to take selfies and film videos. By this point in the show, the security staff weren’t bothered, and it was only for the end of the show, but it’s still thoughtless of people who can see that access customers are struggling to see.
GETTING BACK OUT
There were two choices for getting out, with the having the staircase next to me.
Either a) leave as the last song is finishing and dart back out to the foyer before everyone starts coming down the stairs, or b) sit tight and wait for everyone to come down the stairs and out before I head for the door.
Option B was the best on this occasion, as there were so many people at the front for the last song, I didn’t have a clear way out anyway.
It only took a few minutes for the auditorium to empty. Being at the front and exiting at the front corner, there were no discarded cups to navigate around.
There were many different routes away from the venue, so the crowds soon dispersed, and it was just a slight uphill roll back to Clifford’s Tower to the car.
OVERALL EXPERIENCE
It’s a nice venue, quite plain and simple.
An additional accessible toilet in the foyer would make a difference, and a radar key lock on the existing toilet would keep it available for those who need it.
The venue is great for getting around - no narrow doorways, lovely smooth flooring and no bottleneck corridors.
It’s great when you can get near the stage in a wheelchair. It’s a big selling point for me. It’s just a shame that people choose to block your view.
