Accessibility and EDI - No.1 Royal Crescent
Source: https://no1royalcrescent.org.uk/accessibility-and-edi
Archived: 2026-04-23 17:14
Accessibility and EDI - No.1 Royal Crescent
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Accessibility and EDI
We believe that access to our museum should be easy for all visitors. We make sure that we are able to accommodate visitors with a disability in exploring as much of the museum as possible – and that everybody feels welcome.
Access at No.1 Royal Crescent
We are always looking at ways to make access to the museum easier and value your feedback in refining how we improve our services. Simply contact us today with any suggestions on how we can support you on your requirements, and we’ll work to accommodate your needs.
Contact Us
If you have a carer to help you, there will be no admission charge for them.
If booking online, please book a free-of-charge carer ticket.
No.1 Royal Crescent is proud to be a supporting attraction of the Rainbow Resource Scheme which supports Bath & North East Somerset families of children with SEND.
Rainbow Resource Scheme
Support for people with different access requirements
Neurodiverse Visitors
Our Learning Team have developed a series of resources for use by autistic and neurodiverse visitors. We have a range of resources available to borrow that might support you on your visit. We are following Government guidelines to ensure they are used by visitors and staff in a safe way. This page will share what is available so please keep coming back as we will add more resources over time.
Social Story
We have created a Social Story to help neurodiverse visitors prepare for a visit to the museum. This guide will walk you through a visit, showing you the route through the house, the signage and other accessible spaces. You might find some additional information that will help you to plan your trip, find your way around the museum and what activities and facilities are available.
Social Story
Sensory Map
Our immersive experience includes visual and auditory elements that neurodiverse visitors may find difficult. Some rooms also feature strong smells. You can use this sensory map to identify sensory-friendly spaces in the museum. Please keep in mind that, as the museum’s building and exhibitions change regularly, parts of this map may not be up to date on the day of your visit. The temperature varies as you move through the museum and some spaces can be quite cold. You may want to bring extra layers of clothing to put on.
Please note that a one way system is currently in place.
Sensory map (pdf)
A physical copy of this map will also be available on the front desk of the museum.
Sensory bags
Our new Sensory Bags can be borrowed from the main entrance to the house. They contain resources and items that might support you on your visit, make your visit more enjoyable and help you keep calm as you explore. Please ask a member of staff if you would like to see the bag, find out more or borrow one. In advance of a visit you can call the Museum to find out more and put a bag aside for your visit.
Included in each bag are;
Ear defenders (adjustable for both children and adults)
Fidget toys x2
5 minute sand timer
Globe stress ball
Magnifying glass
Sensory fan
A soft toy to show around
A PECS style board with list of contents
A sensory map of the museum
These are free to borrow by signing them out at the main reception desk and leaving some form of ID as security (passport/driving licence/credit card). This is stored securely and returned when the bag is returned.
The communication board is designed to help families plan their visit and to communicate with staff and helpers. It is in a similar style to the PECS boards used in schools and at home. We used
picto selector
to create our PECS boards.
If you are interested in having your own set of these to add to your own board, please email
[email protected]
and we will happily send you the images to use when you visit us.
Ear defenders
Ear defenders are available to borrow from the ticket desks, please just ask a member of staff if you would like to access a set.
Visitors with Mobility Impairments
Flooring
No. 1 Royal Crescent is an historic building. Some of the floors are uneven. The flooring in the Basement and the Courtyard is flagstones. The Back Stairs are very steep and narrow. Outside the Gentleman’s Retreat there is glass flooring to showcase an original staircase below, this is on the main route but can be avoided by walking back through the Parlour to the Grand Staircase.
Step free access
The Museum is divided into two areas, No. 1 Royal Crescent (the historic house) and 1a, the domestic wing next door. There are two routes around the museum, one of which is step free.
The step free route gives access to the ground and basement floors of the main house museum and the ground and first floors of the domestic wing. This route gives step free access, via an accessible lift, to following museum spaces:
the Dining room
the Parlour
the Gentleman’s Retreat
the Housekeeper’s Room
the Servants’ Hall
the circulatory spaces, both above and below stairs
the Shop
The Gallery (temporary exhibitions and holiday activities are regularly held here).
Unfortunately it does mean missing 4 rooms of the museum:
the Kitchen
the Gentleman’s Bedroom
the Ladies Bedroom
the Withdrawing Room
A
virtual iPad tour
of these rooms is available to borrow from the ticket desk, when borrowing this, we will ask you to provide a credit card for security.
Toilet
An adapted WC is located adjacent to the lift on the ground floor and can be accessed via the accessible lift or by descending 11 steps. This toilet has a quiet electric hand-dryer.
Seating
A variety of seating is available throughout the museum, some with backs and arms. Please look for chairs and benches clear of a thistle, these are chairs that you are welcome to sit on.
Wheelchairs, Mobility Scooters and Buggies
We regret that mobility scooters, prams and buggies are not allowed in museum, in order to protect the furniture and displays from damage. Mobility scooters can be parked at the owner’s risk inside the railings on the paved area near the main entrance.
Manual wheelchairs are permitted. We have one manual wheelchair available to borrow, please telephone in advance to book it on 01225 428126 or ask at the ticket desk on arrival.
Visitors with Visual or Auditory Impairments
Large Print
Transcripts of the immersive soundscapes are available in large print from the ticket desk. A Floor Plan is available on our museum information on the Bloomberg Connects app.
Service Dogs
Service dogs are welcome throughout the Museum. Puppies in training are welcome.
Visitors with Hearing Impairments
A subtitled, virtual iPad tour of the museum is available to borrow from the ticket desk, when borrowing this, we will ask you to provide a credit card for security.
Captions
All videos in the museum (except the projection on the kitchen table) are captioned. Transcripts of all of our new immersive soundscapes are also available.
Hearing loops
Our new immersive experience is connected to a hearing loop system and is captioned, with printed guides also available.
Parents and Guardians
The ground floor toilet has baby changing facilities. This toilet is not accessible to wheelchairs. There is a quiet electric hand-dryer in this toilet.
A special children’s sticker trail is available on arrival. Children enter the museum free of charge when accompanied by a paying adult.
Sensory bags are available for neurodiverse children to borrow. We can also arrange a special quiet tour (advance notice will be reuqired) – please email
[email protected]
to enquire.
Getting to the Museum
Parking
The museum is at the eastern end of the Royal Crescent, approximately 500m north of the city centre. Limited pay and display parking (up to 1 hour) is located near near the museum on Upper Church Street and Brock Street. There are no designated accessible bays outside the museum. However, two designated accessible bays are located on Brock Street, leading up to the Royal Crescent.
Long Term Parking (4 hours or more) is available in the Charlotte Street car park, about 150m away. Access to the Museum from the car park for wheelchair users is via a ramped route next to the WC block in the car park. Designated accessible bays are available near the Charlotte Street car park entrance and next to the WC block.
View a map
.
Getting here on foot
Pedestrians visiting the museum use pavements either along the Royal Crescent, Brock Street or Upper Church Street. These are wide with flagged and slightly uneven surfaces in places. Nearby street corners have dropped curbs.
Getting here by public transport
The nearest railway station is Bath Spa. The museum is just under a mile’s walk uphill from the station.
Taxis are available at the station. If you require an accessible taxi we suggest you book this in advance.
The nearest bus stop is 500m from the museum. Take the No 1 or No 6 bus from Bath Bus Station to Alfred Street (on Lansdown Hill). To return take the No 1 or No 7 bus to Bath Bus Station. Buses run approximately every 10 minutes. All buses are accessible and can accommodate one wheelchair.
Alternatively take the Tour Buses from City Sightseeing Bath, which has a stop outside the museum. The low floor buses are suitable for wheelchair access.
You can plan your journey by car or public transport using
Journey Planner
[link to
https://journeyplanner.travelwest.info/directions
]; simply enter your postcode and ours, which is BA1 2LR, to get directions.
Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) at Bath Preservation Trust
In 2022 we appointed an internal EDI Champion to review and enhance our EDI practices and to help guide and implement a robust policy to enhance our inclusivity for staff, visitors and other people we interact with as an organisation, both online and offline. This policy will cover Bath Preservation Trust as a parent organisation, plus our four museums:
No.1 Royal Crescent
,
Herschel Museum of Astronomy
,
Beckford’s Tower
and the
Museum of Bath Architecture
.
Our full EDI policy will be published here in due course. In the meantime here is a brief overview of our aims and ambitions with the new EDI policy.
Why EDI is important to us
Bath Preservation Trust (BPT) is committed to ensuring that as an employer, an organisation running museums and an active campaigning body, we address inequality and exclusion; advocate best practice and act as a role model.
We believe that everybody deserves to feel safe and welcome at No.1 Royal Crescent and our sister museums. We know from speaking to our staff and surveying our visitors that, on the whole, we are an open and inclusive organisation with an “inspiring” culture, but we would like to build further on this. By appointing an EDI Champion, we aim to review our current practises and hold ourselves to the highest standard. We want to feel secure in the knowledge that as an organisation we are doing everything we can to ensure that everyone has a positive experience with us.
How we approached the new policy
The EDI Champion has reviewed the existing EDI practises in place and pinpointed potential areas for improvement, such as identifying certain new training requirements and accessibility improvements. The EDI Champion has involved every department and stakeholder in the organisation in this process, to maximise available intel and consider all perspectives.
What’s next?
The EDI policy will be published here in due course. The EDI Champion will continue to embed the principles of the new policy at every level of the organisation from the trustees of our parent charity to the museum volunteers.
If you have any questions about EDI and our organisation in the meantime, please email
[email protected]
.
Subscribe to our monthly newsletter
Be the first to hear about our news and events
This site uses cookies to store information on your computer.
Some of these cookies are essential, while others help us to improve your experience by providing insights into how the site is being used.
Skip to main content
Accessibility and EDI
We believe that access to our museum should be easy for all visitors. We make sure that we are able to accommodate visitors with a disability in exploring as much of the museum as possible – and that everybody feels welcome.
Access at No.1 Royal Crescent
We are always looking at ways to make access to the museum easier and value your feedback in refining how we improve our services. Simply contact us today with any suggestions on how we can support you on your requirements, and we’ll work to accommodate your needs.
Contact Us
If you have a carer to help you, there will be no admission charge for them.
If booking online, please book a free-of-charge carer ticket.
No.1 Royal Crescent is proud to be a supporting attraction of the Rainbow Resource Scheme which supports Bath & North East Somerset families of children with SEND.
Rainbow Resource Scheme
Support for people with different access requirements
Neurodiverse Visitors
Our Learning Team have developed a series of resources for use by autistic and neurodiverse visitors. We have a range of resources available to borrow that might support you on your visit. We are following Government guidelines to ensure they are used by visitors and staff in a safe way. This page will share what is available so please keep coming back as we will add more resources over time.
Social Story
We have created a Social Story to help neurodiverse visitors prepare for a visit to the museum. This guide will walk you through a visit, showing you the route through the house, the signage and other accessible spaces. You might find some additional information that will help you to plan your trip, find your way around the museum and what activities and facilities are available.
Social Story
Sensory Map
Our immersive experience includes visual and auditory elements that neurodiverse visitors may find difficult. Some rooms also feature strong smells. You can use this sensory map to identify sensory-friendly spaces in the museum. Please keep in mind that, as the museum’s building and exhibitions change regularly, parts of this map may not be up to date on the day of your visit. The temperature varies as you move through the museum and some spaces can be quite cold. You may want to bring extra layers of clothing to put on.
Please note that a one way system is currently in place.
Sensory map (pdf)
A physical copy of this map will also be available on the front desk of the museum.
Sensory bags
Our new Sensory Bags can be borrowed from the main entrance to the house. They contain resources and items that might support you on your visit, make your visit more enjoyable and help you keep calm as you explore. Please ask a member of staff if you would like to see the bag, find out more or borrow one. In advance of a visit you can call the Museum to find out more and put a bag aside for your visit.
Included in each bag are;
Ear defenders (adjustable for both children and adults)
Fidget toys x2
5 minute sand timer
Globe stress ball
Magnifying glass
Sensory fan
A soft toy to show around
A PECS style board with list of contents
A sensory map of the museum
These are free to borrow by signing them out at the main reception desk and leaving some form of ID as security (passport/driving licence/credit card). This is stored securely and returned when the bag is returned.
The communication board is designed to help families plan their visit and to communicate with staff and helpers. It is in a similar style to the PECS boards used in schools and at home. We used
picto selector
to create our PECS boards.
If you are interested in having your own set of these to add to your own board, please email
[email protected]
and we will happily send you the images to use when you visit us.
Ear defenders
Ear defenders are available to borrow from the ticket desks, please just ask a member of staff if you would like to access a set.
Visitors with Mobility Impairments
Flooring
No. 1 Royal Crescent is an historic building. Some of the floors are uneven. The flooring in the Basement and the Courtyard is flagstones. The Back Stairs are very steep and narrow. Outside the Gentleman’s Retreat there is glass flooring to showcase an original staircase below, this is on the main route but can be avoided by walking back through the Parlour to the Grand Staircase.
Step free access
The Museum is divided into two areas, No. 1 Royal Crescent (the historic house) and 1a, the domestic wing next door. There are two routes around the museum, one of which is step free.
The step free route gives access to the ground and basement floors of the main house museum and the ground and first floors of the domestic wing. This route gives step free access, via an accessible lift, to following museum spaces:
the Dining room
the Parlour
the Gentleman’s Retreat
the Housekeeper’s Room
the Servants’ Hall
the circulatory spaces, both above and below stairs
the Shop
The Gallery (temporary exhibitions and holiday activities are regularly held here).
Unfortunately it does mean missing 4 rooms of the museum:
the Kitchen
the Gentleman’s Bedroom
the Ladies Bedroom
the Withdrawing Room
A
virtual iPad tour
of these rooms is available to borrow from the ticket desk, when borrowing this, we will ask you to provide a credit card for security.
Toilet
An adapted WC is located adjacent to the lift on the ground floor and can be accessed via the accessible lift or by descending 11 steps. This toilet has a quiet electric hand-dryer.
Seating
A variety of seating is available throughout the museum, some with backs and arms. Please look for chairs and benches clear of a thistle, these are chairs that you are welcome to sit on.
Wheelchairs, Mobility Scooters and Buggies
We regret that mobility scooters, prams and buggies are not allowed in museum, in order to protect the furniture and displays from damage. Mobility scooters can be parked at the owner’s risk inside the railings on the paved area near the main entrance.
Manual wheelchairs are permitted. We have one manual wheelchair available to borrow, please telephone in advance to book it on 01225 428126 or ask at the ticket desk on arrival.
Visitors with Visual or Auditory Impairments
Large Print
Transcripts of the immersive soundscapes are available in large print from the ticket desk. A Floor Plan is available on our museum information on the Bloomberg Connects app.
Service Dogs
Service dogs are welcome throughout the Museum. Puppies in training are welcome.
Visitors with Hearing Impairments
A subtitled, virtual iPad tour of the museum is available to borrow from the ticket desk, when borrowing this, we will ask you to provide a credit card for security.
Captions
All videos in the museum (except the projection on the kitchen table) are captioned. Transcripts of all of our new immersive soundscapes are also available.
Hearing loops
Our new immersive experience is connected to a hearing loop system and is captioned, with printed guides also available.
Parents and Guardians
The ground floor toilet has baby changing facilities. This toilet is not accessible to wheelchairs. There is a quiet electric hand-dryer in this toilet.
A special children’s sticker trail is available on arrival. Children enter the museum free of charge when accompanied by a paying adult.
Sensory bags are available for neurodiverse children to borrow. We can also arrange a special quiet tour (advance notice will be reuqired) – please email
[email protected]
to enquire.
Getting to the Museum
Parking
The museum is at the eastern end of the Royal Crescent, approximately 500m north of the city centre. Limited pay and display parking (up to 1 hour) is located near near the museum on Upper Church Street and Brock Street. There are no designated accessible bays outside the museum. However, two designated accessible bays are located on Brock Street, leading up to the Royal Crescent.
Long Term Parking (4 hours or more) is available in the Charlotte Street car park, about 150m away. Access to the Museum from the car park for wheelchair users is via a ramped route next to the WC block in the car park. Designated accessible bays are available near the Charlotte Street car park entrance and next to the WC block.
View a map
.
Getting here on foot
Pedestrians visiting the museum use pavements either along the Royal Crescent, Brock Street or Upper Church Street. These are wide with flagged and slightly uneven surfaces in places. Nearby street corners have dropped curbs.
Getting here by public transport
The nearest railway station is Bath Spa. The museum is just under a mile’s walk uphill from the station.
Taxis are available at the station. If you require an accessible taxi we suggest you book this in advance.
The nearest bus stop is 500m from the museum. Take the No 1 or No 6 bus from Bath Bus Station to Alfred Street (on Lansdown Hill). To return take the No 1 or No 7 bus to Bath Bus Station. Buses run approximately every 10 minutes. All buses are accessible and can accommodate one wheelchair.
Alternatively take the Tour Buses from City Sightseeing Bath, which has a stop outside the museum. The low floor buses are suitable for wheelchair access.
You can plan your journey by car or public transport using
Journey Planner
[link to
https://journeyplanner.travelwest.info/directions
]; simply enter your postcode and ours, which is BA1 2LR, to get directions.
Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) at Bath Preservation Trust
In 2022 we appointed an internal EDI Champion to review and enhance our EDI practices and to help guide and implement a robust policy to enhance our inclusivity for staff, visitors and other people we interact with as an organisation, both online and offline. This policy will cover Bath Preservation Trust as a parent organisation, plus our four museums:
No.1 Royal Crescent
,
Herschel Museum of Astronomy
,
Beckford’s Tower
and the
Museum of Bath Architecture
.
Our full EDI policy will be published here in due course. In the meantime here is a brief overview of our aims and ambitions with the new EDI policy.
Why EDI is important to us
Bath Preservation Trust (BPT) is committed to ensuring that as an employer, an organisation running museums and an active campaigning body, we address inequality and exclusion; advocate best practice and act as a role model.
We believe that everybody deserves to feel safe and welcome at No.1 Royal Crescent and our sister museums. We know from speaking to our staff and surveying our visitors that, on the whole, we are an open and inclusive organisation with an “inspiring” culture, but we would like to build further on this. By appointing an EDI Champion, we aim to review our current practises and hold ourselves to the highest standard. We want to feel secure in the knowledge that as an organisation we are doing everything we can to ensure that everyone has a positive experience with us.
How we approached the new policy
The EDI Champion has reviewed the existing EDI practises in place and pinpointed potential areas for improvement, such as identifying certain new training requirements and accessibility improvements. The EDI Champion has involved every department and stakeholder in the organisation in this process, to maximise available intel and consider all perspectives.
What’s next?
The EDI policy will be published here in due course. The EDI Champion will continue to embed the principles of the new policy at every level of the organisation from the trustees of our parent charity to the museum volunteers.
If you have any questions about EDI and our organisation in the meantime, please email
[email protected]
.
Subscribe to our monthly newsletter
Be the first to hear about our news and events
This site uses cookies to store information on your computer.
Some of these cookies are essential, while others help us to improve your experience by providing insights into how the site is being used.