Access
Up until September 2010, St John's did not have access or facilities for disabled people and was not easily accessible to the elderly. The sole access to the church from the exterior was by 14 steps - too steep for ramps. Interior access was again by steps either to the restaurant or the hall. It was not only extremely desirable but vital that St John's as one of the nation's most beautiful historic buildings and major concert venues could provide access and facilities for all to enjoy its architecture and music.
The main elements of the scheme involved the installation of a lift to serve the ground, crypt (box office and restaurant) and concert levels. The box office and main entrance foyer relocated to the area near to the lift, providing a new and much more attractive and prominent shared point of entry for all. Adapted toilets were also provided in the crypt. The artists’ dressing rooms also relocated allowing more direct access to the stage. A platform lift will be installed in the near future allowing disabled performers to gain access to the stage level.
Read more about this topic: St John's, Smith Square
Famous quotes containing the word access:
“Power, in Case’s world, meant corporate power. The zaibatsus, the multinationals ..., had ... attained a kind of immortality. You couldn’t kill a zaibatsu by assassinating a dozen key executives; there were others waiting to step up the ladder; assume the vacated position, access the vast banks of corporate memory.”
—William Gibson (b. 1948)
“In the greatest confusion there is still an open channel to the soul. It may be difficult to find because by midlife it is overgrown, and some of the wildest thickets that surround it grow out of what we describe as our education. But the channel is always there, and it is our business to keep it open, to have access to the deepest part of ourselves.”
—Saul Bellow (b. 1915)
“Knowledge in the form of an informational commodity indispensable to productive power is already, and will continue to be, a major—perhaps the major—stake in the worldwide competition for power. It is conceivable that the nation-states will one day fight for control of information, just as they battled in the past for control over territory, and afterwards for control over access to and exploitation of raw materials and cheap labor.”
—Jean François Lyotard (b. 1924)