Access to Historic Buildings - Case Studies

I would like to share a few interesting examples that illustrate best the current issues on Access to Historic Buildings in England and Wales.

Historic buildings are protected by a listing process. There are currently about half a million buildings in the UK being listed. If any work is needed to be done on a listed building, there will be rigorous scrutiny in the planning approval process after the client submit drawings and reports to the local authority concerned.

Let's quickly jump to the two examples of listed buildings that had undergone alteration, refurbishment and additional work in the last five years, since the Disability Discrimination Act started in 1995. The Act, with reference to the Code of Practice Part 3, requires that the duty is on the service provider to make it possible for everyone, including disabled people, to have access to the services provided.

I have mentioned about the Manchester Art Gallery in earlier postings. Another building is the National Gallery, which faces Trafalgar Square in London. Both buildings are Grade One listed. This means that the buildings are highly significant, usually historically and/or architecturally. After DDA (1995), Manchester Art Gallery was altered and added from the year 2000-2002 and the National Gallery was only recently altered and should be completed by now.

MANCHESTER ART GALLERY

This is the front portion of Manchester Art Gallery, where a gradual ramp was built behind the new plinth from the left side as we face the building. The ramp is hardly noticed, hence it is a good example adhering to the principle of 'not creating any visual intrusions' to the facade of the building.

The Athenaeum building sits behind the front building and is part of the Manchester Art Gallery complex. The was a vacant lot besides the Athenaeum building that now houses the new addition to the gallery.
Most of the ancillary spaces such as the main stairs and lifts were built in the vacant lot. In terms of access for those with impaired vision, the glass threads of the main stairs could appear to be unstable, thus unusable.
The front building, a Grade One listed building originally designed by Sir Charles Barry is about 300 mm lower than the Athenaeum building. The new built was set to be the same level with the Athenaeum building in terms of floor levels. Hence there was a need to have a ramp to connect to the front building's 1st floor. Again, the glass ramp could appear to be a 'void' to partly-sighted people. Further more the gradient of the ramp was a bit more steep than it should, which resulted in people using manual wheelchairs having problems negotiating it.
The architect had intended to accentuate the front building by highlighting and separating the new built and the historic, by providing floor lightboxes. Partially sighted people find walking across them to be scary as they could not make out a 'solid' floor.

THE NATIONAL GALLERY, TRAFALGAR SQUARE

Previously people using wheelchairs had to go much further down to the Sainsbury Wing to use the lifts in order to enjoy the gallery.The middle pavillion has a set of stairs, and so do the two sets of pavillion on the left and right as shown in the photo above.
The idea is to 'push inside' the set of stairs and a lift could be found behind the plinth before the stairs, for people to use. This was ingeniously done to the right plinth as shown in the photo above.