access london in 2024 and earlier

At Christmas we were stunned by a performance on BBC of RAYE at the Royal Albert Hall where she talked about becoming Independant from her record producer as they would not allow here writings to be published. At the age of twenty six years young, she somehow had the belief in herself to take this on as an independant, and was she amazing? Yes she was.

Absolutely stunned by her openness and honesty in her performance and writings about her early life, plus a very delicious sound of her melodic singing, I don’t really know genres of music, we heard that she was to have a performance at the O2 arena on the 15th March 2024, and there tickets became available. There were 18000 and these all sold out within the first day. Wow. This is going to be so good.

Now, I struggle downstairs most days at present. So, lets put this into perspective. I can drive to the O2 arena, park somewhere nearby and somehow get into and out of the same arena; or maybe we could come by train into North Greenwich on the Jubilee line. This should not be an issue, as there were only 20 thousand people to dissipate into this train station on their way home.

Prior to the visit, I did call the support assistance people at the O2, as I had previously used their help a month earlier at a Strictly concert. In that visit, I had walked in from the car park, and then been transported in their wheelchair at the end of the performance back to the car park. The car park was expensive, and a considerable distance to walk (for me), and we decided to arrive by train and with our own wheelchair, which was a major feat of its own, and the O2 arena informed me by email that I could leave my chair at their customers services points on level 1 or level 4. Our seats were block 105, level T, which was ten rows down from level one and fairly near this customer support point – too far for me to walk unaided.

My story of the day, it was brilliant at every stage, mostly. I checked the lifts were working with c2c_rail at twitter.

The plan was to travel up early afternoon, and have some food in town, and arrive at the O2 by train, or cable car, or boat, or somehow. We parked in one of the sixteen disabled spaces at Upminster station. You just turn up, and cannot be booked in advance. The station is easily accessed by a side entrance, no lift needed at this point. I was offered assistance onto the train, which was unnecessary as I can walk a number of steps unaided. The first train was full, and we wited for a later train which was late. The c2c goes to Fenchurch street, and at Limehouse it is very easy to exit the train and change for the DLR. If you cannot exit here due the step, you would need to warn the station staff, I think.

At Limehouse, a short walk gets you to the DLR and we travelled to Canary Wharf, a very new area, with stations for the DLR, Jubilee, and also the amazing new Crossrail Elizabeth line. These are all spread around Canary wharf and linked by various shopping malls around, and with numerous eating and other shops on differing levels. There are lots of lifts, most malls have one accessible, or open, door. All outside areas have some form of lift available to avoid any steps. At the Crossrail place there are some excellent toilets on level -3 including accessible toilets and on the top floor is the green and relaxing oasis roof garden which is beautiful. Someone spends a great deal of time in the range of plants being on show. I was able to share these areas with my wife (carer, wheelchair pusher), who was unaware of many of these nice spots in London.

We eventually stopped near Crossrail at a restaurant serving sourdough pizzas called Franco Manca which was very pleasant, and slightly different. It was fairly quiet, and not rushed, and priced OK. A relaxing glass of wine was also nice.

We headed off for the O2 arena, with the Jubilee station a distance to walk, better in a wheel chair, and a couple of stops along the Jubilee line to North Greenwich.

Here you are hit by the size of the O2 Arena, which appears very small, but scale is difficult to guage. There were people on the roof, walking the apex of the Arena! A cheeky Tesco express is at the entrance, and good for stocking up on sweets etc.

The Arena was buzzing, with huge crowds of youngsters, and all ages actually. My wife left me whilst she visited the claokrooms, and a security guy made sure I was OK, which was good. We then headed through security, and a quick visit to the customer services at level 1, where the really helpful guy answered any questions we had. Eventually, my wife wheeled me to the entry point, and took the chair back to the ‘cloak room for chairs’. We ascended the ten levels to row T, which was fine.

The concert started about 7.45 with RAYES younger sister Absolutely, who was great. And then RAYE! The Arena erupted. It is difficult to describe someone as rough as Amy Winehouse and as good as Adele, and as lyrically musical as Beyonce and Raye is very professional, and she sings her heart out, with an acrobatic display of chords, and octave-vaulting – and the way she talks, part-singing coach (explaining reverb and harmonies to the audience), part-therapist, part-best friend and she tells her story in the way we all need to be ablt to tell our story to our concellor friend about life and its tribulations. Sh sang for nearly two hours, all of her own songs and lyrics, all from the heart, and all shared with us, her best friends, because we supported her when her record label said NO, and the ‘Ice Cream Man’ makes most of us cry, and makes her an evern stronger and great woman we all have learned to love in such a short time.

It was very loud, and the lights were dazzling, and there were at least one hundred people on the stage. Raye does not mention her six Brits awards, or maybe she does. She earned every one of them. Thanks RAYE.

And at the end, i struggled up ten steps, and collapsed in the arena as thousands walked past me, and my wife retrieved the wheelchair, and then we set off via lifts awaiting us with dedicated staff all helping out, and out of the arena, towards North Greenwich station, and we work our way through the masses to an entrance at the station where staff let us through into the station, and this is the most tricky part getting to the lift. But there are some incredible, and lovely people out there, complete strangers, who help us find a way though the crowds, and move barriers, etc. The train was fine, back to West Ham, where serveral lifts later we find a c2c train almost awaiting us. We travelled from the show ending at 10.30 arriving at Upminster by 11.30-ish.

And home.

Thanks again RAYE, and the wonderful support assistants at the O2 Arena. Thank you, it was a brilliant day.

As you may have guessed, my wife and I travelled to Malta, via Gatwick using Purple parking as the preferred parking provider. We have used Purple Parking many times before, and expected this part to be OK, but not sure about getting into Gatwick airport, or onwards, and upwards.

Firstly, Purple Parking was absolutely atrocious. Their coach stops nowhere near to the terminal, the coach itself is freezing, and their terminal near to Charlwood, has been altered significantly that it offers little help to the disabled traveller when finally collecting a vehicle.

In short, the Purple Parking company could not care less about the traveller with disabilities. I will not use this Purple Parking company again as they were absolutely abhorrent.

We did manage to arrive at the point at Gatwick where support is available, after a considerable walk (for me). The support button is at the ground floor of a set of lifts, level one is the drop off points for Easyjet and others.

Whoever was the help at the end of the support phone, it was pretty useless. I had rung Gatwick airport assistance previously, and advised to use this support button to contact support. It was pretty useless. It suggested we move to level 2. There was nobody there??

We moved to level 1 as this was where the drop off points were, and took advice from a member of the airport staff, thankyou.

We did eventually find another support phone on level 1 which offered the same level of support, i.e. not a lot. I think maybe you need a different person at your end of the phone, maybe??

Eventually, a support person came and helped us to travel into the airport, and the rather nice Lounge.

Sometime later, we were again moved from this Lounge area to the relevant gate. All of those receiving support were taken to a sepcific gate number where a member of staff appeared to be in training, and a very large queue of disabled peoiple began to collect.

After this interesting interval which was probably only fifteen minutes, a largish group of people were awaiting transport to the aircraft (on more than one flight). The loader is like a mini trailer with seating and room for wheelchairs. It is motorised and has a lift plate at one end, similar to loading a lorry. It works. This motorised container of people is then transported to the relevant aircraft where is it is lifted to become an entry portal into the aeroplane. This works well.

What did not work very well was the levels of local traffic entering the airport to gain access to the planes. In fact we spent over an hour being driven around Gatwick trying to get to the plane. I have no idea what the issue was, but the best part was actually a member of the support team repeatedly promised that we would not miss our airplane, as we had been logged in to fly. This was very important, as you can imagine that an airplane waiting an hour for a disabled transporter is far from perfect, and very stressful, and they could have unloaded our bags if they had wanted. The good news was that after an hour or so, and this was past the original leaving time, we were loaded onto the easyJet flight to Malta. The flight was eventually about an hour and a half late.

The only downside to the easyJet flight was their food in which they could not even supply a plate , but instead it was eaten out of a readymix package they supplied. The picture in their magazine looked entirely different. Shocking cheapskate stuff, and totally avoidable with just a cheap plastic plate required.

I will cover the return flight to England before discussing Malta airport (which was brilliant).

Our return flight to the UK, again withe easyJet, again running about an hour and a half late was OK. We were loaded onto the flight initially by the support team at Malta, and arrived back at Gatwick close to midnight.

The exit from the plane is after all normal passengers have alighted, and in this case included just two support men transporting about six disabled persons from the one flight, plus partners alongside. These guys were incredible, and this was walking / pushing us all, up a long, sloping corridor to their electric vehicles. From here, we were all transported via passports, security and to luggage collection. We asked if we could be transported as far as the coach drop off, but were happy to be taken as far as the entry to the airport. I felt awkward asking for more!

It is a very long walk back to Purple Parking coaches drop-off point which is much further away from the terminal than in earlier days of travel, but this was just about manageable, albeit quite slowly in the cold midnight air.

The coach arrived, and after a very cold drive, it dropped us off at their office near the airport, where the car was a considerable walk from their office. There is little help towards those requiring assistance, and we struggled to get into the car after defrosting etc, and finding our way around the car park. It was not a good experience, and it will not be repeated, as Purple Parking are absolutely, and completely, useless for helping those with disabilites.

So, Gatwick Assistance was brilliant some of the time, but still needs a bit more support to make it workable.

Malta was an en entirely different story to Gatwick, but then the airport is tiny. The outward flight was followed by a member of their support team transporting us all of the way to the exit, and we opted for a taxi as the weather was not great. Buses are a cheaper option, but they do not offer much in the way of luggae space.

We opted for the taxis operating out of the airport, which cost thirty euros. Our return taxi using a company called Bolt was about twenty one Euros, you just need the app installed on your phone, a bit like Uber at home. We used their taxis quite a lot when in Malta for our stay, and they were very quick to respond, and also reasonable. I think the first couple of times we used them were a very special deal, and very cheap indeed.

Our return flight home at Malta was a bit more erratic, but the support was again very good between check-in and the aeroplane, and overall a very good experience.

We stayed at an AX hotel chain in St Pauls bay / Buggiba which is part of the International Hotel Group. The hotel was large, clean, the staff were exceptional, and the food was nice. The only thing they did not mention as part of the booking was that there was a convention for over five hundred people during the week we stayed at the hotel.

If there are five hundred people who never leave the hotel, and the five hundred people have the entirety of the public areas set aside for them during large parts of the day, and they also feel that they are entitled to every bit of space, including where you may be sitting, it does not lead to a great holiday break, in fact it was downright disgusting.

The people on the convention were mostly Middle Eastern, North African with a hint of Bible bashing, anti-abortion, Trumpite Americans (MENA). All in all, many were extremely obnoxious to our needs on our holiday, as were the hotel who seemed more interested in profit than the plight of their holidaymakers.

Incidentally, on the last day of departure, we got chatting to a group of English travellers who were on a special deal of four weeks for the price of three weeks holiday, and they were told that this week of the convention was the free one! I did not get offered a free one! We escaped the war zone by spending most of the days away from the hotel, a bit like a Pontins trip from an eon earlier which was also the most un-enjoyed holiday ever. The IHG team, and their hotels have now been compared with Pontins holiday camp for good reason.

I visited the O2 centre in early February 2024, and as I was travelling down to Hampshire immediately after the strictly come dancing show, I decided to try parking at the O2. I checked out a bit about the access issues and help in getting about. Parking is incredibly expensive as compared to my London60 pass which costs nothing on public transport, but hey ho.

My wife had contacted the assistance team, who appeared brilliant. Apparently there is lots more help once the venue is open, and support assistance is available, but NOT if travelling in early. Fair enough.

My wife had purchased tickets for the strictly show, and so lets enjoy. We thought we would travel up earlier than the actual show, and enjoy a meal somewhere in the venue. This was the original plan, anyway! We did have some sweets.

If anyone knows the Blackwall tunnel, the traffic in the vicinity is awful. We factored this in when travelling into London on the A13, and headed to the O2 and its car parks.

Unfortunately, if you just follow sat nav, you get to a point where you have to turn round and head back towards the Blackwall tunnel, and find the badly signposted alternative direction to the car parks blocked because of the building works. All of this driving is quite wearing, and eventually we arrived in the correct car park, with lots of car park atendants standing around, randomly pointing, and with little idea where to park, apart from the fact that we had a blue badge and could park in the hundreds of disabled spaces. We parked along with all of the other blue badge holders, a huge distance from the O2 centre, because that is what you get offered.

I walked slowly (normal pace), and after a number of walking stops (getting my breath back), arrived in the O2 centre. We did not bother looking for a food venue, and headed for the show. Food venues, please note this loss of revenue.

We had to walk down a considerable number of stairs to get to our booked seats, and it appeared that an exit would be better achieved by leaving at a lower level. My wife again contacted the support team, and they would meet us at the lower level a short while before the show ended, for a hasty get away. One of this support team came and checked we were okay. Thanks.

The show was amazing, and thrilling, and lots of lovely stuff. We left the show about ten minutes before the end, and an amazing guy collected us and pushed a wheel chair with me in, to our car. Brilliant service, thank you.

It was worth parking there in the end, as we still had a two hour drive; but the parking for disabled people at the O2 is diabolical. Next time, we will come by train.

Thanks to the support team who were brilliant, thankyou, thankyou, thankyou.