The new OpenLondon guide is the definitive guide for visitors to London with access needs. The guide contains everything required to enjoy London to the full.
OpenLondon is packed with useful information on accommodation, places of interest, transport, theatres, restaurants and shopping.
Clear, attractive entries present the reader with facts at their fingertips and useful maps help find locations.
Inspirational information about places to visit and practical advice on getting around the city make this guide an invaluable holiday or business trip planning tool for anyone with access needs.
Why advertise in the OpenLondon guide?
If you want to promote your accessible services to an enormous, largely untapped market, this is the publication for you.
• The OpenLondon guide is a unique publication – a definitive travel guide for people with access needs. OpenLondon has everything needed to explore and enjoy London to the full
• Display advertisers also receive a free detailed listing including photographs and a link to your website on www.openbritain.net
• OpenLondon will be marketed through networks used by disabled people including RADAR and Tourism for All UK
• OpenLondon is available in newsagents, bookshops and Tourist Information Centres throughout the UK
• The OpenLondon guide is a full colour, high quality book
• This publication is the OFFICIAL guide which is supported by The Mayor of London, Visit London and the London Development Agency
For further information please download the OpenLondon Media Pack below.
There’s inclusive entertaiment for all the family this Haloween at Chessington World of Adventures in Surrey from the 21st October – 1st November.
“The whole family can enjoy spooky entertainment this Halloween as wicked witches and naughty Goblins take over the Park! New for 2009 ‘The Black Forest Haunt’, escape from Transylvania…if you dare!
Plus a mythical Fiery Faun will be weaving enchanting tales of his homeland using magic and fire to delight the younger members of your family.
With rides in the dark and the chance to get up close and personal with the Zoo’s spiders, snakes and glow-in-the-dark scorpions there’s so much fun to be had it’s scary!”
Chessington World of Adventures has a guide for disabled people on their site.
Halloween is upon us again and so it’s time to start looking at what’s on over this fun filled period around the UK. First off is the Peak District and Derbyshire’s Spookyshire events. Various different celebrations will be undertaken throughout the region and here’s a look at a few of them.
Celebrate Halloween in style at Gullivers. All the usual rides and attractions, plus a fantastic firework display. Pop into Halloween shows throughout the day to see special characters. The perfect evening for the whole family. Booking is advisable as space is limited. Children in fancy dress receive £1 off admission before 2pm.
For information for disabled people please download the Gulliver’s Word Document or find it in their site under “What is Gulliver’s”
You can also find more theme park Halloween fun at Alton Tower’s Scarefest from the 17th October – 1st November. For information for disabled people please visit their Disabled Access page where you can also download a leaflet.
For a truly haunting half term come and enjoy a week of tricks and treats at Chatsworth’s Farmyard Halloween Hoot. For the brave there’s all kinds of evil excitement to keep the little horrors happy including making monstrous masks and cards or taking one of the daily ‘Fright Flights’ through the haunted Warlock Wood. Just watch out for the sinister Spellweaver that lurks amongst the trees. Most activities free upon normal farmyard admission fees. Fright Flights can be booked on the day for an additional charge.
Come face to face with animated ghosts and ghouls in the Haunted House. Take a Haunted Hayride round the Freaky Forest and play Trick or Treat on the Witch in the Wood.
• Most of the centre is accessible to wheelchairs and push-chairs. Disabled toilets and baby changing facilities are also available.
• Sorry – dogs are not permitted, except for guide dogs. Please do not bring your dog and leave him in the car.
For more events in the Peak District and Derbyshire please visit the Spookyshire page where you can also find symbols to indicate facilities for disabled people.
According to English Heritage Audley End House in Essex is one of England’s finest country houses, and a mansion with a difference:
“Following the restoration of its great Service Wing, visitors can now tour the ‘parallel world’ where armies of servants laboured to ensure the smooth running of this great mansion.
Audley End takes its name from Sir Thomas Audley, Henry VIII’s Lord Chancellor who, after 1538, adapted the extensive buildings of suppressed Walden Abbey as his mansion. His grandson Thomas Howard, first Earl of Suffolk, rebuilt the house on a massive scale between 1603 and 1614. Known as ‘the Palace of Audley End’, this Jacobean ‘prodigy house’ was three times its present size, and one of the largest mansions in England. But in 1618 Suffolk fell from favour and into massive debt, and his great house went into decline. More
Disabled people can find access and other useful information on Visitor Information page of Audley End House and Gardens where it states:
Facilities Available:
Facilities Details:
Wheelchairs: we have four wheelchairs, available on request; four motorised wheelchairs available in grounds, but must be booked in advance. Please ring 01799 522842.
Toilets: Adapted; level access.
Shop: Level access.
Tea rooms: Ramped access to the tea rooms. Please note there are 3 steps to the self-service cafe.
Access:
Access to house: Via loose gravel, tarmac, cobbles and smooth grass. Ground floor level apart from Butlers Pantry which has 4 steps.
Gardens: Access via tarmac and gravel paths and very smooth grass. Seats provided. A number of bridges either have a step or steep slope.
Parking:
200m from entrance, with reserved parking for disabled visitors. Please make arrangements in advance if possible.
Visually Impaired Visitors:
Fountain, wildfowl and bird song in grounds; flower and rose gardens
This Friday (9th October) is the spectacular annual Leeds Light Night arts event that takes place in the city centre. Residents and visitors of all ages are invited to come and take part in this completely free celebration of the city’s diverse and exciting arts scene.
Millennium Square will host a number of events, including awe-inspiring moving projections on the Civic Hall and a chance to draw with light and see your creations up on the BBC Big Screen. Discover the ‘lost art of conversation’ using yogurt pots and string, see moving artwork around the city at a travelling gallery, create your own planet and become part of the Light Night solar system or see angels ascend from heaven in the university chaplaincy. Just a snippet of the 80 events across 50 venues that are sure to keep you busy all night!
We don’t often have the time to sit and study physical movement. It passes us by as we go about our lives: all kinds of physical shapes and sizes constantly moving past us at various speeds – we see people run, walk, struggle and push as they stride through life.But, there is no one there who is ‘really normal’: there is only difference.
Motion Disabled aims to show movement using clear and unambiguous imagery: the kick boxer who is also thalidomide; the cyclist with Cerebral Palsy; the footballer with Spina Bifida; and others.These are movements that will not exist for much longer; society seems to want to be ‘normal’, to be squarer, flatter, more reduced and banal.
In the work you will see virtual movements based on the day to day reality of the disabled actors involved. Questions are raised: how do shower with short arms? How do you answer the phone if you have no arms?
The work enables the viewer to engage and explore ideas of normality and difference on a pathological and metaphysical level as a challenging art work that reveals who we all are to ourselves and others. A process that is particularly relevant at a time when bioscience is encouraging society to make complex genetic choices that will affect the future course of humanity.Is the future of difference going to only be virtual?
Doors Open Days is coordinated by the Scottish Civic Trust and is part of European Herritage Days along side the Scottish Archaeology Month which is organised by Archaeology Scotland. Doors Open days is the largest free annual architechtural annual event in Scotland and runs throughout September.
On the Doors Open Days website you can search for free access to hundreds of fascinating buildings throughout Scotland. Every weekend throughout the month many buildings that are normally closed to the public open up for a glimpse into their private interiors.
You can search either through the site’s interactive map, area or date. Within the interactive map page you can also search by area, date and theme.
Unfortunately, you currently cannot search by facilities for people with disabilities this year, but maybe it’s something that they will add for 2010. However, once you have found a building that you would like to visit they do include symbols to indicate accessible WCs and if there is access to the building.
Celebrating insects in art, and the art of being an insect.
Pestival is a rare creature: an international, inter-disciplinary, community-led festival. Events include insect-inspired comedy, music, ID walks, talks, workshops, experiments, fashion and a termite inspired architectural structure at the centre of Pestival 2009. 80% of creatures on earth are insects, the ‘pests’ without whom humans wouldn’t survive. Pestival celebrates the 100s of millions of years of evolution, which places insects at the heart of human existence. Pestival 2009 celebrates how insects shape our world, and how humans shape the world of insects, in both science and the arts.
Pestival is in its second edition and has been described as “a rare and wonderful celebration of the creepy crawly” (The Independent). Swarm on the entire Southbank Centre site, 4 – 6 September and put insects on the cultural map – before it’s too late.
‘If all mankind were to disappear, the world would regenerate back to the rich state of equilibrium that existed ten thousand years ago. If insects were to vanish, the environment would collapse into chaos.’ (E.O Wilson, the world-renowned biologist and thinker)
Pestival 2009 has been generously supported by the Wellcome Trust and is an Pestival event. For more information on Pestival, visit pestival.org
For further information please visit the Pestival information site at the Southbank Centre.
For information regarding facilities for people with disabilities at the Southbank Centre visit their site.
After the Equal Adventue Festival 09 I had to get to London for the following day, there were really only two options; fly or a train. The problem with flying was that I would have to leave the festival early and then also pay for an overnight hotel in the capital, neither time nor budgets allowed for this so I looked into the Caledonian Sleeper Train provided by Scott Rail which would not only get me to London in time for my meeting but also give me a place to sleep on the Sunday night.
After looking through the access information on their website and decided to take the plunge…
I have to admit that I was very pleasently surprised by the Sleeper Train, the berth was farily spacious, the adapted WC and buffet car were right next door and the staff were friendly and helpful.
The wheelchair accessible berth
The adapted WC
The trip was much more comfortable than I expected, I slept really well, the conductor brought me breakfast in bed at 8.00am and I was in London Euston by 9.15am. It was the perfect way to travel from rural Scotland to the hussle and bussle on the big smoke and so very easy.
Just for fun, below is a short video clip of the Scottish countryside flying by the window of my berth on the Caledonian Sleeper, enjoy…
Please note that the OpenBritain launch date is the 1st September 2009, please come and visit us again to see the full completed site. In the meantime, here’s some OpenBritain News!
Equal Adventue’s mission is to “To provide a wide range of support to providers – from consultation and research to strategy, implementation, mentoring and technical coaching – to enhance the opportunities to pursue adventure sport and active lifestyles available to people with diverse needs.”
The Equal Adventure website continues to state “For many, gaining meaningful access to sport and adventure opportunities is a greater challenge than the activity itself. Despite a commitment to equality, mainstream providers of outdoor activity, expeditions and sport are often forced into standard patterns of operation – often leading to exclusion. Gaining meaningful access requires taking measures that challenge technical, logistical and human barriers, building on simple good practice.
“For this reason and to help raise money for Motivation and 500 Miles, 2 charities that support the needs of people with disabilities in the developing world they decided to hold the Equal Adventure Festival 09. The event was held at Gelnmore Lodge just outside Aviemore, Scotland and spanned two days of outdoor activties to suit all tastes and abilities.
On the first night Jamie Andrew, a world renouned mountaineer, quadrouple amputee and a founding memeber of the 500 Miles charity gave an inspiring talk about his accident and recovery from it. His speach and experiences took us through a barrage of emotions and certainly set us up for a weekend of challanges with his main focus being about setting yourself goals in life, acheiving them and then moving onwards and upwards to the next. These goals do not have to be breaking world records but instead pushing your own personal limits from learning to undertake basic day to day tasks and then onto desirable personal aims.
10 teams of up to 4 people which were mixed of disabled and non-disabled people competed against each other undertaking tasks such as an endurance loop through the Cairngorns National Park, problem solving activities, orienteering and water based fun on Loch Morlich in adapted Canoes. My personal favourites were “Off the Beaten Track” a challenge to work as a team to navigate land, water and mud including crossing the river in two places. Sometimes the river crossings went well and at other times it was slightly more dubious!
Below a video of the Whacky Races on the Off The Beaten Track Challenge.
Another of the activities that I really enjoyed was the problem solving where as a team we had to create a rope square while blind folded and also try to build the tallest free standing lego tower. This wasn’t as easy as it sounds with a fairly strong breeze coming down through the valley, but of course our team managed to erect a tower of 5 foot 7 inches creating the record.
Another activity was to create eco-friendly head dresses from local plants and vegetation…
A great weekend was had by all and I for one cannot wait for the Equal Adventure Festival next year, which have been provisionally set for the 27th – 29th August 2010 (To be confirmed).
For more photos from the Festival please see Equal Adventure’s Picasso photo album.
Welcome to the OpenBritain Blog a new source of news and information relating to travel, tourism and daily living for all in the United Kingdom. For the first time, three of the countries leading charities for the disabled have teamed up in partnership with the AA to create Open Britain, with an all new definitive guide book and web site for people with disabilities and special access requirements.
With our partners above, we are currently developing this website alongside the new Open Britain Guide 2010. You will be able to:
Search our comprehensive database of accommodation, days out and where to eat
Review your favourite places, write your own travel blog, add photos and meet other travellers on our forums
Use the MyOpenBritain trip planner to keep a list of your favourite hotels, B&Bs, self-catering, camping and caravan sites, tourist attractions and restaurants
Find out not only where to go, but how to get there
As well as all this you will be able to keep up with what’s going on in the UK with weekley blog upadtes and also through following our Twitter feed.
We hope that you enjoy OpenBritain and remember to come back and visit us after our launch on the 1st September 2009.
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