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Hotels in the UK are very good these days at showcasing their accessibility. Some hotels do as they claim to do – treating all guests as trusted adults and going above and beyond to ensure that each person who walks through the doors is given the same level of respect and service.
However, as a severely visually impaired travel writer for the last 25 years, I’ve found that nowhere near enough hotels deliver on their promises of accessibility. Attempts at inclusivity are often appallingly badly applied, and a distinct lack of attention and value is given to Disabled travellers as to our able-bodied counterparts.
Waiters have handed me children’s menus as the typeface was in a larger font (the assumption being the adult menu would be too small for my eyes to cope with). I’ve been assigned an accessible room with décor seemingly left over from the set of Fawlty Towers, while the rest of the hotel basks in a modern new makeover. I’ve been given rooms without the luxury of a window. And I’ve been told to sign additional fire insurance forms upon check-in, in case, I presume, the hotel burns down during the night and the hotel staff aren’t trained to rescue me.
There’s work to do for sure. However, in the capital at least, there are some hotels that consistently get it right for Disabled travellers. Here are my favourite three, all of whom apply outstanding accessibility, don’t make a fuss about it, and will never hand you a children’s menu.
The Beaumont
Two minutes from Selfridges, to veer down North Audley Street and into Brown Hart Gardens is to take a trip back to an older London. The raised terrace garden in the centre of the square is a gorgeous Victorian oddity – a Baroque marvel crafted from Portland stone.
Independently run, the Beaumont is an ode to Jazz Age aesthetics, but without the stairs and odd little steps that make such period structures an impossibility for anyone who can’t easily clamber up.
The Beaumont has half a dozen accessible rooms, including their Mayfair Suites. Wandering around one of these with a bathrobe on is to feel like Douglas Fairbanks or Audrey Hepburn – stick on a Sidney Bechet album, order a Whisky Sour from room service and soak up the wood panelling, lacquered desks, geometric curtain patterns, sprawling sofas with Prohibition era tufting and piping, marble drenched bathrooms and Impressionist art. The Coleman suite has a particularly vivid and brilliant piece called Still Life With Cello and Flowers by the French Impressionist Maurice Louis Tete.
The Colony Grill restaurant and the Le Magritte bar are all step-free. On no account should you miss a prawn cocktail in the former and a Bloody Mary in the latter. The array of accessible options is genuinely innovative and holistic here. From organising ‘touch-tour’ visits to the nearby Wallace Collection to providing Envision smart glasses to large print books in the hotel library to an (upcoming) sensory garden, there’s a care and sensitivity to the approach here that goes far beyond the legally stipulated.
One word of warning: don’t believe the story about the hotel being named after a Prohibition era illicit booze tycoon called Jimmy Beaumont. He and his entire backstory were made up by previous owners Chris Corbin and Jeremy King. Sorry for the spoiler.
Address: 8 Balderton Street, Brown Hart Gardens, London W1K 6TF
Website: booking.com
The Zetter, Marylebone Townhouse
This exquisite townhouse tucked behind Oxford Street is one of my favourites for the simple reason that, up until very recently, this is the kind of hotel that simply would have considered accessibility impossible.
To their immense credit, the Zetter have managed to create three accessible rooms out of the mere 24 available, with extra-wide doors, lowered sinks, vibrating pillows on request and a completely accessible downstairs bar area, too.
Dubbed The Parlour, this is a room you’ll want to spend a considerable amount of time in. The space resembles the drawing room of a 19th-century explorer – expect Transferware Victorian teapots and plates depicting pastoral scenes, Persian carpets, a myriad of miniature liquor bottles, Chinese lacquered lift doors, and an elevator interior adorned with ancient front covers of Punch magazine.
Take a seat, order a drink and a heaving cheeseboard, and admire the ceiling frescoes of swans, the pelmet curtains, lashings of teak and oak wood panelling, and even some stucco that looks like it was lifted from a quieter part of the Parthenon when the Greek guards were on a retsina break.
Gaze out of the sash windows and it’s impossible to believe the chain-store hell of Oxford Street is a mere wall-mounted deer antler away.
Address: 28-30 Seymour Street, London W1H 7JB
Website: booking.com
Rosewood London
This is the star of this list. The Rosewood is a place where your every need or desire isn’t just imminent – it’s been anticipated in advance. You will have a personal butler during your stay. Mine, clad in fetching blue tartan, was called Stephen and performed a masterclass of calm-headed help and assistance without once appearing overbearing. My accessible room on the fourth floor (one of eight available at the hotel) should be shown to any hotelier attempting to create rooms for people with accessibility needs. All the appropriate cords, rails and adaptations were there, but it was done with such discretion as to not disturb the aesthetics at all.
And what aesthetics they are – the rooms have a minimal style in tones of black and white with humbug stripe carpets, pendant drum lamps, Greek klismos style chairs, two huge oculus windows, tweed fabric bedheads and floor-to-ceiling mirrors in the bathroom that seem to possess some sort of alchemy that makes you look absolutely fantastic at all times. I’m not certain, but perhaps this is partly due to the glossy condition your hair will be in after using the Votary brand toiletries. Descend to The Holborn Dining Room, where audio menus are available on iPad.
The Rosewood allows the Disabled traveller to breathe a sigh of relief. You won’t need to ask, coax, plead or demand a single thing. It’s all been taken care of.
Address: 252 High Holborn, London WC1V 7EN
Website: booking.com