Lady Lever Art Gallery Port Sunlight.

With a fascinating history of community spirit, the Lady Lever Art Gallery sits in the middle of the quaint village. It has parking outside, both the front entrance and the side, where there's a ramp that zig-zags up to the doors. The ramp isn't great for the visually impaired as its all silver/grey with clear Perspex low-down windows that you have to be careful to avoid. It's free to enter, being a public gallery. As you go from the welcome desk area, it's like entering a rabbit warren and is easy to get lost. One room leads to another and another... Its great, especially if you love art and history. Each room is filled with pieces of furniture, some dating back to 18th century. Many paintings, artefacts and fireplaces were from Lord Leverhulme's collection, who built Port Sunlight Village in March 1888. The wheel chair access is good. The doors and an old wood flooring that doesn't squeak, is good for the tyres to roll on. Tables and exhibition/ information stands are placed so that people can walk in a square shape. I liked that some rooms were interactive and had an audio explanation, similar to a landline telephone. The only difficulty with this was knowing which buttons to press. Ideally, this mix of audio visual commentary would be throughout the whole gallery. There is a lift, although it has no turning room, it is brightly lit and has a voiceover. I barely felt it moving and was surprised when the doors opened. the lift opens into a wide, bright space. Here you turn right into the cafe. The dim lighting makes it hard to see and the amount of tables crammed in, make it hard to navigate with a wheelchair. Although the food smelled nice, as it was busy, we didn't stay. Along from the cafe is a gift shop selling soap and other trinkets. The shop is small, with not much room to move and beyond that there is an activity centre which is used for school trips on occasion but can also be accessed by the general public, when you first enter there are toys and fancy dress costumes for children to try on and a small soft play area, this room then leads to a well lit room that has glass cabinets in with ornaments and trinkets, there are tables scattered around the room with pencils, crayons and paper for people to draw what they have seen during their visit, as well as pictures of artefacts to colour in and stencils of some of the art work you will have seen during your visit to colour in, these are quite good for someone with a visual impairment as they are raised allowing you to feel the patterns of the plates and pictures. I'd recommend the gallery invest in either more audio description telephones or something similar to the Wi-Fi interactive system at Van Gogh Alive. The wheelchair access upstairs is very good, with wide, open spaces, however, down stairs could do with some improvements.
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