London with bad knee
 

I'm travelling to London in February with a bad knee, wearing a brace and using a cane at least part of the time. I'm familiar with London, but not with this situation. I assume that the larger places--British Museum, for example--may have wheelchairs to borrow or rent, and that they'll probably be reasonably negotiable. Does anyone know this to be true? Does anyone have tips/horror stories/advice to give me, about places to look out for, avoid, embrace? I'm a specialist in Renaissance literature and history, so I usually head for places with historical and cultural interest, but I'll be towing a sixteen-year-old girl (well, she may be towing me) and staying at a hotel on Regent St.

marysidney, I'm sorry to hear about your knee. I checked the British Museum an National Gallery websites and they do say they have wheelchairs available. I volunteer at a museum here in the US and our wheelchairs are free to borrow but there is no guarantee of one as we have a limited supply (however, on the days I volunteer we have always had enough.)

I hope someone who has visited London in similar circumstances can be of more help to you. I did just google "access London" and found this website which might be of interest: http://www.visitlondon.com/maps/accessibility.

Have you considered bringing a wheelchair with you? Just a thought.

I hope you have a wonderful trip!

I meant to mention that London taxis are quite large and should be able to hold a wheelchair should you decide to bring your own.

Rick Steves' "Easy Access Europe" is a bit dated but might be helpful.

Traveled to London a few years back with my twin sister, who was in the middle of chemo treatments. Used one at the British Museum, Madame Tussaud's, & Harrod's. However, it would be very difficult to use one at The Tower of London, due to the cobblestone and stairs.

You need to book ahead at Madame Tussaudes as they only allow two wheel chairs at a time due to the difficulty of evacuation. As some one who has used wheelchairs in the past it is always better to have the same one, have you tried to hire a wheel chair for your entire stay?

Though virtually everything is, in principle, legally required to be fully "accessible", the practicalities of old buildings and tube lines, the need to keep tubes running and the equally important legal requirements to respect a building's heritage mean there are a number of things in London that are still difficult to access:

- Major attractions. All have slightly different quirks. Always explained on their website
- The tube. Simply fuggedabout it in the centre.
- Taxis. Practically ALL black taxis are equipped for wheelchairs, to a point where you can now assume they all are. But cost an arm and leg. Details of accessible minicabs on the TfL site
- Buses. About 95% now have virtually step-free access.
- Pavements ("sidewalks" in Colonial). Almost all now have ramps at street crossings. Cobble almost non-existent.
- Trains. Wheelchair access to virtually all National Rail stations, and within stations to virtually all platforms. With advance notice, someone will meet you on and off all trains at a manned station with a ramp to get on/off the train.
- Alternative to wheelchairs. All major exhibitions now seem to have racks of lightweight, unbulky, portable chairs at the entrance. People in your position might find these a more convenient option in some places than taking a wheelchair everywhere.

Thanks to all who responded. Fortunately, I'm not actually wheelchair-bound; it's just that I don't think I'll be able to explore the trackless wastes of the British Museum without one. I expect I'll cut way back on the walking, anyway. More specifically, I wondered about which tube stations involve long passages on foot, for example; I know that one I went to last summer, when I was relatively hale and hearty, involved long circuits and back-and-forthings. I expect I'll be taking more taxis than I'm used to--which brings up the question of whether they are generally hard to come by? In New York, you can stand on the curb for a quarter of an hour before snagging one, and outside Grand Central you haven't a prayer. I think the suggestion of a portable chair is a good one--come to think of it, I've seen them for sale in a contraption that combines it with a cane, hmmm. And I've never done much with buses in London--the tube has such a good map I'm intimidated by the buses, much as I am in New York. Well, more research is indicated, thank you for the website link, too.

Buses in London are much, much more user-friendly than they used to be. There are good maps on the London Transport web site - e.g. http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloa...on-bus-map.pdf - and the bus stops have useful strip maps.

Taxis are plentiful, seem to be everywhere, and very easy to catch. The longest we had to wait for one was about ten minutes one evening but we were usually able to get one in a matter of minutes. I didn't think they were that expensive, given the convenience factor. We ended up taking quite a few on our last visit as my elderly aunt was also having knee problems. We initially tried taking the tube, but my aunt found the long walks in the stations and the stairs too tiring.

Don't be intimidated by buses.

The improvement in information about bus services (and in the quality of buses) is probably THE single most impressive achievement in London over the past ten years.

Practically every bus stop has easy to understand maps of how to get elsewhere, and up to the second displays of where buses are. Extremely easy to get on and off - and Oysters mean they're easy to pay for. Stunning route planning on the TfL site, though that can be tricky to access for many visitors, especially for spontaneous decisions while you're out and about (though good compatibility with smartphones)

Cabs can be ruinously expensive, and the right bus in the centre is now almost as easy to find.

Absolutely agree about buses (= big red taxis). In addition to the map thursdaysd has posted, you can find on the TFL website diagram maps for individual routes, and for the routes serving all the major crossing points, such as you will find at the bus stops:

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/gettingaround/maps/buses/

You're right about tube stations. Basically, the more lines pass through it, the greater the likelihood of major route marches to get in and out.

MarySidney - I wish you all the best with your trip and the bad knee. I had to take care of my mum unexpectedly on our trip to Europe when she delveloped 2 bad knees! I hope you have got anti-inflamatories because the knees are bound to get worse just from more intensified use.
Take care.

All of this about the buses is very good to know. I will definitely be studying the maps and printing them out before I go. It will be a different experience altogether, because I've always loved walking in London. At least in London there isn't likely to be as much ice! Thank you all for your advice.

Just back; had a great time, used the buses a good deal. I never noticed before how much walking--and stairs--were necessary to use the Tube. It's especially difficult if you're slow when crowds of people are trying to get to work, but the buses were easy, when they went in the right direction. However, I did not find that the bus stops were themselves well marked in terms of maps, etc; usually the map was for night service only, if there was a map at all. And because data usage is so expensive, I couldn't use my smartphone at all to look up maps and schedules. Even the handymap book, which marks the bus stops, does not show where the buses go, but only where the stops are, and without much detail, at that. So the moral is, take the maps with you, as PatrickLondon suggested; don't count on finding it there. Oh, and I used a wheelchair at the British Museum, which was Packed! and not easy to negotiate. I hadn't realized ahead of time that Feb. 14-20 was half-time for British schools, as well as for American ones; the Science museum was so crowded as to be impossible on the weekend.
Thanks for all the input.

Glad to hear you had a good trip! A bit surprised that you didn't find the bus stops well marked, as I have found that all of them now have strip maps for all buses that use that stop. Certainly agree it's worth taking the bus map from the London Transport web site.

Strip maps may have been there, but I was looking for a map of where the buses were going; and in fact, I'm not sure that a simple strip map would have been useful to me. If I am trying to get from point A to point B, I need to see the route and the intersections. This is the genius of the Tube map: I see where I am, where I need to go, and how to get there. The bus strip "maps" only list the stops; it doesn't help me to know that I can get from Oxford St. to Piccadilly, if I don't know that I can then pick up a bus to Kensington. I'm sure that people who live in London find them perfectly adequate, but as a tourist, I couldn't figure it out. I wanted a way to see if the bus going by me right then would take me where I wanted to go, and I couldn't tell by looking at the stop.