Accessibility & facilities

Gainsborough’s House is committed to providing an accessible experience for all. We have a number of provisions in place to endeavour to keep that promise.

If you require any assistance, please call in advance so we can aim to accommodate your needs.

Site map

There are three public disabled badge holder’s parking bays on Gainsborough Street just past the traffic lights at the bottom of Market Hill. Unfortunately, these spaces cannot be reserved in advance. You may park in these bays for up to 3 hours. From here, it is a short walk past our museum shop, café (47 paces) and print workshop to the main reception at our new galleries (84 paces). When you arrive at the front of the new galleries on Weavers Lane, there is an assisted door opening button at the main entrance.

Gainsborough’s House is mostly accessible by wheelchair. Unfortunately, larger mobility scooters are not suited to our museum layout. You may borrow our manual wheelchair while visiting and this is located at the reception desk. If you would like access to this during your visit, please call in advance if possible. Doors to the ground floor galleries have access via an assisted door button. The lift in the new galleries is located to the right of the reception desk. There is hand-rail access on all stair routes as well as hand-rails leading out into the garden and main House.

Once you are in the gardens, there is ramp access to The Watering Place Café and the main House. The old House has a lift that can access all areas of the museum, excluding the very top floor – The Upper Bow Room. The significance of the Grade I listed building meant this area of the House couldn’t be developed to be accessible via lift. However, there is a short flight of seven stairs with a hand-rail to give access to this part of the House.

Parking

Please see Sudbury Council — Parking for more information about disabled parking spaces in Sudbury. There is opportunity to drop off at the front of our new galleries on Weavers Lane, please let us know in advance so that we can offer assistance upon your arrival. More information about getting here.

Assistance

Here at Gainsborough’s House, our team are happy to help. Our dedicated volunteers are always on site if you need any help — they can be identified by their blue lanyards. If you require extra assistance for your visit, please get in touch in advance so that provisions can be put in place. There is access to a wheelchair on site should you need it.

Assistance animals

Working guide and assistance animals are welcome at Gainsborough’s House. In order to protect the artworks in our care and for everyone’s comfort and safety, your assistance animal should be appropriately trained, supervised and kept under your control throughout your visit, ideally remaining on a leash. No animals except assistance animals are permitted in our galleries and museum.

If you have any queries regarding a visit with your assistance animal, please get in touch. 

Disabled Access

There are disabled toilets and baby changing facilities across the site. For visitors with limited mobility, there is a lift in the main House to allow access to all floors except for the very top floor. This lift has a weight limit of 340kg. Here, a short flight of seven steps with a handrail offers access to the Upper Bow Room on the top floor of the House.

There is a lift that can access all floors in the new galleries. The weight limit for this lift is 400kg. Along with this, there are various assisted door opening buttons in the new museum space.

 

We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, please contact: mail@gainsborough.org